Astonishing X Men: Black
by Proudly Pinoy
Summary: The team faces another crisis, as a troublemaker from within the student body decides to take some frustration out on the X Men, all the while a band of geriatric mutant villains decide that they should go out with a bang. Complete
1. Diamond and Fire

**Author's note: **Okay, here's my first attempt at fiction based on the X-Men, which is like, totally my favorite superhero team ever. That's because I pretty much loitered in the Resident Evil area of this website for the past few years, which coincidentally, is my favorite game ever. This story goes right before the 'Danger' storyline, on account that I don't have issue 12 yet of Whedon's amazing first year run. At any rate, we all know the copyright. X-Men is the property of Marvel, which incidentally is going through a creative vacuum when it comes to their cinematic expenditures. Some of the students though, namely two of the main characters in the story, are all mine, baby. So without further adieu, this is "Black", hope you leave some constructive criticism through the happiness-inducing review button Thank you/Salamat!

**Astonishing X-Men: "Black"**

**Prologue:**

Emma Frost impatiently raised her eyebrow as she waited for the answer she was looking for. Everyone in the room stopped breathing, figuratively at least, as they watched the young man in the middle of the room look like he was about to wet himself. "Well, Mark?" she asked again with a thick English accent, her hands crossed in front of her chest. "Uh…" The young man bit his lower lip as his eyes uncontrollably trailed to the area that the buxom educator folded her arms over.

_"Mark Vasquez!" _came a sudden psionic call right into the student's mind. "Young man, the next time I catch you with such naughty thoughts lingering about like that, I'm sending you to the headmaster's office, Do you understand?" she scolded, gesturing with her hand for him to sit back down. "Sorry, ma'am." He mumbled, as the rest of the class began to chuckle. Mark just let out an embarrassed smile as he ran his hand over his shaved head. Derrick tapped Mark on the shoulder, and flashed him the smile that all best friends were entitled to. "It's not my fault she barely wears any clothing." He whispered jokingly, earning him a disapproving glance from the unapologetically seductive educator. Derrick just shook his head, biting the tip of his pencil.

"Now…Celeste, what do you propose we do?" Emma then asked returning to her table and leaning against it. "We think it better to keep the kitty." Celeste answered, remaining on her seat. Mindee and Phoebe sat on each side, the three-in-one, inseparable. They're called the Stepford Cuckoos. All of them wore white, just like their once favorite teacher, the one currently handling the class.

"Oh? Could you elucidate?" Emma asked, shutting out another student's overtly loud, malicious thoughts about her body.

"Well, it would be our pleasure." She responded. "You see, it wouldn't be prudent for the mortician to…Miss Frost!" all three telepaths stood from their seats in shock as they felt an immense wave of energy headed burst into every direction. "I know. All of you, get down!" the teacher instructed, sending all the students into both worry and confusion. _"Now!" _the telepath ordered, and the students immediately followed suit. A second later, the sound of cracking thunder tore into the room, just as the door flew right off of its hinges. Some of the students cried out in fear as the door crashed over the tables that they hid under.

"I earnestly hope that you plan on replacing that student's broken arm soon, dear." Emma casually remarked, referring to a student who got hit by the flying piece of wood.

"…" Rachel Summers, better known to the world at large as the Marvel Girl, floated into the room, her eyes dazed, her body in a slump.

"Bloody hell." Emma whispered as Rachel narrowed her eyes and growled at the blonde headmistress. Other than near, omega-level telepathy, and augmented strength, Marvel Girl also had pyrokinesis at her disposal. A talent she wasn't shy in flaunting, as she conjured a lethal cloud of fire from beneath Emma, enveloping the older mutant. "Burn…"

**Chapter 1: "Diamond and Fire" **

"Well, it's not wrong to have these feelings." Kitty Pryde commented, placing a comforting hand on the male student's frail shoulder. They both sat on a bench on the school grounds, a good distance facing away from the classrooms. It was the spot that Kitty preferred to hold her sessions, right in front of a basketball court. The students who didn't have fifth period preferred to stay on campus grounds instead of retreating back into their dormitories. "I mean, sure, you're mutant powers aren't as glamorous as some of the other kids…but, I'm fairly certain your ability to sense incoming text messages could come in handy someday." She said, trying to sound as serious as she could.

"Oh sure. Real handy. 'Hey, Doctor Doom, stop your machine to End all Things for a moment, you've got a message from your toadie!'. Or, or, what if the bad guy doesn't even have a cell phone? What do I do then? I mean, what kind of a hero am I gonna be?"

"Todd, listen…our powers, sure they make us special…but they do not, do not define who we are. Being faster than a speeding bullet doesn't make you a hero, but the will to do good? That does. That's what's important."

"…" Todd lowered his head, knowing full well that the young guidance counselor was right.

"Okay?"

"Okay, miss Pryde." He responded softly. "Good, now I want you to apologize to James for hitting him earlier, because that's something heroes don't do. Okay? Heroes don't fight each other."

The sudden sound of wood and plaster getting torn apart, and the students' shocked screams, suddenly made both the teacher and student turn, their eyes widening in shock as they found Rachel Grey violently speared right through the campus wall by Emma Frost. Before either woman could land, Rachel clubbed Emma over the head, drilling the English woman face-first to the ground, while she herself flew higher to avoid getting dragged down. "…Most of the time." Kitty uttered weakly as she got on her feet. "Kids, I want you all inside the building, now!" she then yelled, as she noticed the students enthralled by the two x-women's battle. Emma was already in her diamond form, her clothes still burning. Though it may have saved her from the fire, her organic, unbreakable form greatly limited her telepathy, as well as her vulnerability to it. Which was perfect for Rachel. "Steal him from me…?" Marvel Girl hissed, as she readied for a powerful bolt of pure, psychic energy.

It took a second too soon, as Emma quickly jumped back on her feet, and hurled a large piece of wood, spiraling in Rachel's direction. The slab managed to hit its mark with a very loud crack, sending Rachel plummeting back to the ground. _"Now." _Emma resumed her human for, just as the flames on her clothes died down. With battle-hardened anticipation, she watched as Rachel got back to her feet, the same feral expression still etched on her face. "No right…" she slowly hissed, before charging at Emma with rocket speed.

"Emma!" Kitty yelled as she watched Rachel spear herself through the older telepath. "Huh?" Rachel let out a painful gasp as she felt a blunt force hit her at the back of the neck not even a second later after she hit Emma, rendering her unconscious. "…" Kitty simply watched in silence as she saw Emma materialize beside Rachel's body, once again in diamond form. "Sorry about that." Commented the headmistress, rubbing her wrist.

Kitty furrowed her eyebrows as she made her way to Marvel Girl's limp body. "Is everyone alright?" Emma asked, dusting herself off. "I don't know, Rachel looks like she got hit on the head with a large, wooden plank!" Kitty sarcastically responded, as she checked on the unconscious X-woman. "Ha ha, you're so funny in that special, retarded way of yours." Emma rebutted, placing her hands on her waist.

"Miss Frost!" called the Stepford Cuckoos as they stood behind the hole that the two women left on the classroom wall. "Yes, dears?"

"Latavia Williams turned her arm to rubber to stop the pain, Sooraya is taking her to the infirmary. And Derrick Gallis is unconscious, but there aren't any signs of physical injury." The three girls reported in unison. Emma glanced at Kitty for a second, concern evident in her eyes, before she hurried back to the classroom.

**Danger Room/1500 hours **

"It's like we're having these little therapy sessions everyday." Henry McCoy commented, still wearing his lab uniform, and his round framed glasses.

"Huh, Eiffel Tower. At least we actually get to visit a nice place this time." Kitty commented, referring to the danger room simulation that Henry used for the day's meeting.

"Hardly. I say this place is overrated." Emma commented, leaning on the railing and not really caring about Paris' evening skyline. "Right now, I don't care what you think about the French." Scott Summers chided, as he finally joined them in the simulated environment.

"At the risk of sounding like a student, Rachel started it. And at the risk of sounding guilty, my students can vouch for me." Emma quickly defended.

"I still don't get what happened." Kitty chided. "What did you do to her, Emma?"

"It's called a psychic engram. It scrambles my psychic signature, making me undetectable to other telepaths. Mix that with a mental projection of myself…" Emma started.

"And Rachel charges at the first thing she sees, the psychic projection of Emma. Not Emma herself." Henry continued. "Exactly. Thank you Henry."

"So why did we all see it? Shouldn't it be just Rachel who saw your vanishing act?" Kitty then asked.

"Didn't have time to crack into Rachel's head, since the dear already had something else living in her brain, so I…well, panicked."

"And sent out a psychic wave that hit everyone in the area." Scott concluded.

"How's Rachel?" Logan asked, standing a few feet away from Emma. "Says she didn't know what happened. That she's sorry." Scott responded.

"I'm worried." Henry interrupted. "All signs point that someone took over Rachel telepathically. Marvel Girl. That's not something most mutants could do."

"I don't think whoever did this managed to take over the Phoenix Force. From what I saw, Rachel was using her own steam." Kitty commented. "But still, with or without the Phoenix Force…"

"…Unless of course, Rachel's so comfortable with where she was or who she was with that she didn't bother taking the liberty to keep her head thought-proofed." Scott suggested.

"…And we rely on campus security when we're on school grounds, so we don't keep our shields up, unlike when we're in the field." Emma added.

"Quentin didn't reconstitute himself again, did he?" Henry asked jokingly.

"Ugh. Which reminds me, why is it you telepaths always like causing trouble?" Logan asked.

"We're not fully sure that it's a telepath yet." Scott chided.

"No, I think it is. My prize girls picked up some sort of psionic frequency, just like I did." Emma corrected.

"Which reminds me, how's that student, the one who got knocked out, or something?" Kitty inquired.

"Derrick Gallis and Latavia Williams. Healer says they're both fine." Henry answered.

"Good. Though we still don't know why Gillis got knocked out in the first place." Scott then said.

"He isn't a telepath, is he?" Kitty asked.

"Not that anyone knows. From day one, the power he displayed was limited pyrokinesis." Henry responded.

"Well, since I'm the only qualified therapist here, I'll take it on myself to find out if whoever influenced Marvel Girl left some sort of telepathic residue. A psychic signature, if possible." Emma commented.

"You can do that?" Logan asked.

"Not really, no. But a telepath always leaves an empathic imprint when using his or her powers to control someone else. Could be anger, indifference…"

"So we match the emotion to the student? Not the burst the bubble before it, uh, bubbles, but we've got hundreds of kids here." Logan interrupted.

"That's right. And thanks to Kitty, we have the legal and ethical means of getting into their heads." Emma answered. "Wait, wait, you mean a student did this to Rachel?" Kitty asked.

"If the imprint matches. But I felt a massive psi-bolt in the premises just before Rachel decided to go blame me for her life. And if there were any intruders at that time, we would have known." Emma explained.

"That's right. I've been lurking around campus grounds for the whole time, didn't catch a bad guy's scent." Said Logan.

"No chance of pinpointing where it came from?" Scott asked.

"It was too sudden." Emma responded. "Kitty, I'll be needing you to talk to the telepaths, there aren't many in the school. Ask them if they felt anything around the time of the attack." She then instructed, to which the young X-woman simply nodded in response.

"Henry, you and I go to the danger room try and find a way for her to secure a telepathic line, make sure no one uses their high-powered brains to do something like this again." Scott then said. "Okay, so everyone got an assignment?" he then asked. "I don't." Logan answered, lazily raising his hand.

"Have some beer." Scott ordered. "Danger room: simulation, end."

**Men's Dorm/15:20 **

"You sure you okay?" Mark asked, hunched over Derrick's bed, a look of concern for his best friend etched on his face. Derrick just smiled and nodded. "Man, that was cool, wasn't it?" he then asked, sitting himself down on the floor, leaning against the side of his roommate's bed. "I mean, wow, Miss Frost… she's just so hot. Honestly man, I don't know how she expects us guys to concentrate when she wears all those outfits."

"You're a horny bastard."

"Come on, don't tell me you've never jacked off over her."

"…You know, with a face like yours, you don't even need kick-ass superpowers, though you have those too, to hook up with anyone on campus. Why go for the one you can't have?" Derrick asked, his voice a little too serious.

"Look who's talking." Derrick responded. Both of them were right of course. Mark was half-Asian, half-German, with deep brown eyes, and an athletic build. Derrick, on the other hand, was a little thinner, but still well-built, with dark brown hair that reached the back of his neck, and blue eyes as clear as sapphire. Both pf them were just a year below twenty. With half a smile, Derrick patted Mark on top of his shaved head. "Anyway, what was up with earlier anyway?" he asked.

"I dunno. But all the teachers ever do here is try and kill each other. It's so cool." Mark responded. It was no secret to the world that mark acted a little immature for his age, but no one minded.

"Rachel Summers isn't a teacher… is she?" Derrick asked.

"Uh, not sure. I think she does admin stuff, like, liaison to other superhero teams or something. I know she's part of the X.S.E."

"…I'm still thinking about Miss Frost's Ethics class earlier."

"Hm? Something wrong?"

"No, not the battle. I was just thinking off the question she asked before everything went to hell. You know, the one that you answered with such articulation."

"Oh, that." Mark chuckled as he began to play with a tennis ball. "What's up with that anyway?"

"Well, I think it wasn't an interesting question."

"You mean, 'what do you do if you're a veterinarian, and a dead man's will includes you having to put his perfectly healthy cat to sleep lest you risk crushing an old corpse's death wish'? Bull."

"Come on. It's not that clear cut, I mean, it's the man's last testament to his family. For all we know, that cat could be something he really cherished. So much that he wanted to take it to heaven with him."

"…If you ask me, if the old man really cared for his cat? Then he'd let it live on. Anything other than that? It's just selfish." Mark commented, with a rare, serious tone.

"…What do you care about?"

"…Making sure that I never have an accident with my powers again."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring that out…"

"Nah, its fine. We've known each since freshman year, anyway. You're entitled to full 'soap-moment' rights. Besides, it's not like I'm the only one here who lost loved ones when the mutation manifested. There's Wither, that Dynamo kid, Chewy…"

"Come on, doesn't make it any less…you know."

"Hey, hey, come on Derrick, its fine."

"Still…" Derrick bit his lower lip.

"It's fine, okay?" Mark repeated, though his voice softer this time, more soothing.

"…Okay."

**/22:43**

"I've been away for so long." Whispered a female voice. The shadows covered her from head to stomach, keeping her identity, at least for now, secret.

"Time to get back in the game." She uttered to herself, as she stepped over the copse of a homeless man that she literally melted into a bubbling pile of skin and tissue.

"You know, talking to yourself is generally perceived to be a bad thing." Interrupted a male, somewhat cracked voice.

"…?" The woman turned, following the voice to man slumped over the rail of an emergency stairway. "I mean, that's what the nice men in white suits told me." He kept a long, brown trench coat, and a matching hat that attempted to cover his bright, scarlet eyes. His exposed chin revealed old man's skin, withered and layered, though it had the distinction of being violet in color.

"May I ask who you are?" the woman politely offered, clearly unafraid of the menacing man.

"They call me Bile." He introduced, taking off his hat and taking a short bow.

"…Charming." The woman muttered, as she watched the man descend the escape ladder.

"I've seen you before. You tussled with the Avengers a long time back, didn't you? Called yourself the Mist Mistress?"

"Ah yes. That was back when some idiots decided that our names had to include what we do. Kind of like stamping 'how to beat me' on my costume."

"Good old days. You knew who the heroes were. You knew who the villains were. Tell me…Mist Mistress, do you want to do something crazy?" the old man asked.

"Crazier than this?" she asked, gently kicking the corpse by her feet.

"Old timers like us, we tend to get forgotten. Moved aside like furniture while the newer, badder kids go around making a name for themselves. Sickening really. These kids, they don't have the same chemistry we used to have with the heroes. There's no more flavor, no theatrics, no more soliloquy. Just loud explosions and half-assed motivation."

"…"

"So I took it upon myself to take the time and gather some of the more…aged, but capable, members of our kind."

"…"

"And we decided that the best way to go out, obviously, is with a bang."

"…"

"So, what do you say, ma'am? How about we give this sick little world of ours one last good shake? For old times' sake."

"Are you saying that I look old?"

**Chapter 1, End**

**Author's Note: **Well, there's the set-up. Hope you enjoyed.


	2. Further and Farther

**Author's Note: Hey, back again. The madness continues, well not so much as the madness gets set to continue, but you get the picture. **

**Kirayoshi: Thanks. Peter is having some down time, but he'll be headlining the next chapter, so watch out for that ****J**** In the meantime, he's busy being his non-chatty self. **

**Madripoor Rose: Yay. You're the first to put this story on the fave list, so my heart goes out to you! I really like your name by the way. **

**Previously on…A usual day in class goes horribly wrong as Rachel Grey, AKA MARVEL GIRL, violently bursts into the room and attacks headmistress EMMA FROST. The battle leaves no one badly injured, but young student DERRICK GALLIS found himself unconscious, with no visible reason why. And as the X-Men discuss the situation in a simulated environment within the Danger Room, they're completely oblivious of the fact that an old mutant, by the name of BILE, has been recruiting Silver Age villains for his apparently violent cause… **

**Chapter 2: "Further and Farther"**

"Read the news?" Logan asked, as he walked into the kitchen. Henry and Scott were already sitting on the table, having coffee. "It's on TV." The leader responded, pointing at the television set hanging on the upper corner of the room. "Oh. You people are lazy." Logan sneered as he grabbed a donut from the counter.

"That's the point of technology. Siphon away human potential." Henry dryly responded, his feline eyes still glued to the screen.

"So, these three people were melted, huh?" Scott commented. "Haven't had those in a while."

"Think it's a mutant problem?" Logan asked.

"Well, unless it's a serial killer lugging around a vat of acid…" Henry took off his glasses and cleaned them with the end of his tie.

"It could be just another metahuman. We'll have to let Emma use Cerebra to check if it's a mutant. " Scott suggested, finishing his cup.

"Which, incidentally, isn't done with the repairs. Dust really tore it a new one." Henry pointed out, getting up.

"At any rate, metahuman or mutant, we'll still go and check the scene." Said Scott.

"Oh yes. And hopefully find ourselves an adoring public who'd want to pin posters of us in their bedrooms." Logan crudely retorted.

"Who here misses the U-Men?" Henry asked sarcastically.

"…Anyone seen Peter?" Scott asked, to which the two other mutants shrugged their shoulders in response.

"He's stealing the 'mysterious one' image I worked so hard for." Logan commented.

"We'd better find him. Get to…you know, welcome him back. More." Scott suggested.

"Again, I don't see any wackiness ensuing in that guy's future. I say we give him space. He already has Kitty crowding him like an ADD case, anyway." Logan responded. And in a short moment of silence, that was the only time he picked up the person in question's scent, lingering outside.

"…oh." Both Logan and Henry turned to look at a closed door. "Crap." Scott uttered under his breath as he heard a set of heavy footsteps marching away.

"…Think he heard us?"

**Headmaster/mistress' Office/10:23**

"I must say…I'm quite relieved it was someone exerting telepathic control over you all along." Emma noted, as she looked outside the window of her office.

"How do you work that out?" Rachel asked, still dismayed over the fact that she let herself get taken over so easily. Being one of the most powerful mutants there was, she didn't only get her pride hurt, but the fact that her power could have been used to do something that could possibly be only described as evil, that was what frightened her the most.

"Well, dear, as selfish as it sounds, that's because I now know that what drove you to do what you did wasn't because of any…enmity between the two of us."

"…"

"I find that comforting."

"Well, I'm glad that you're glad that we might only be facing another super villain in the making. Because really, our personal history is so much worse. Apocalyptic even." Rachel sarcastically responded.

"…We made the mistake of letting young master Quire blossom with some very dangerous new ideas. So much so that it was too late for us to stop him when he decided to act out his uninhibited bid for attention. We all suffered a bright, young student for it."

"…"

"Do you know how this one is different from master Quire?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll tell me."

"Quentin Quire treasured subtlety. His telepathic influence was like a nudge into a specific direction, an appeal of sort. He tempted you with unattainable glory, and in that way, he kept his subversion below our very capable ears."

"…"

"But this one is far from subtle. Whoever this student is, he or she, the move to take over your mind left quite an imprint."

"…and that was?"

"Passion. Whoever did this, did it out of passion."

"Oh…you know I think, I think maybe that…whoever did this knew. About the both of us. That maybe whoever it is wasn't just telepathic."

"An empath?"

" Maybe my personal…opinion of you made it easier for him or her to force me to attack you."

"That's a sound statement. Maybe we can rally the horrid little empathic telepaths we have running around, try to whittle down the list of suspects."

"I'll get on to it."

"I'll have Kitty do it."

"…"

"Of course, this only proves to worsen the opinion that the student body has on the telepathic students. A lot of the undergraduates are already quite jumpy with the fact that they're talking to students who can read minds. God knows that those walking hormone bombs have secrets they prefer keeping."

"Okay…"

"We'll need to ensure that the rest of the students have a way to protect themselves against...our more mischievous telepathic brethren."

"…I'll get on to that. There aren't many anyway."

"Eight. That includes my girls. Thank you."

"Sure thing."

"…"

"uh, Emma, I'm-"

"There's nothing to be sorry about, Rachel. If anything, I see this as an opportunity for us to…spend time to level with each other."

"I…I just want to make it clear, that I respect you, Emma."

"…"

" But you're not my friend. And I still…really, really don't agree to you being together with my dad."

"…I know. And in all honesty, it really isn't in my agenda to throw myself at your feet in search for some sign of acceptance."

"…"

"But I love Scott. And if loving him means that I need to bear with your…disagreement with my very existence, then it is something I earnestly plan on enduring."

"…Glad to know."

"Well, let's end this spot of uncharacteristic drama, and get on with the business at hand, shall we?"

"Please, and thank you."

"Right now, you are to tell me who are the students that you've been in contact with the last twenty-four hours."

"The whole day? Do I have to?"

"Of course I could just hack into your brain and gleefully shuffle through your memory bank, but I think that doing so would be ever so rude."

"Your compassion is earth-shattering."

"I try my best."

**Campus Grounds/ 11:26**

The sun washed over the institute, turning the dew into a bright golden color. Cool, soft winds blew across the grounds, making it seem more like an idyllic vacation house and not a school. That's why the students enjoyed spending their time in the gardens. Come spring, the trees come alive with colors of valiant red and orange, a feast for the eyes when you include acrobatic leopard men jumping about.

"I swear man, I think I'm in love with her." Mark commented as he watched Miss Frost walking into the rose garden. As always, she carried herself with an air of dignity that reflected her upper-class breeding.

"Is that because of her ability to not wear clothes?' Derrick asked sarcastically, earning him a slight tap at the back of the head from his best friend. "Come on, you know my love for her goes deeper than that." Mark rebutted in between his laughter. They sat beneath a large oak tree, just a few feet away from a few kids who were playing aerial tennis. Derrick waved as a student named Hisako passed by them, and she returned in kind.

"…That's the rose garden where they built the shrine right? To Sophie?" Derrick then asked, referring to where Miss Frost went.

"Uh-huh. Damn, I really wish I could have been here when Kid Omega tried taking down the admin."

"Come on. We were still in the Massachusetts academy back then."

"Yeah, but you know, maybe we could have helped. Maybe we could've, you know, made a difference."

"We don't even have any thought shields. If we tried stopping him, chances are, he'd regress us back to our anal stage."

"Not if he didn't know what hit him."

"…At least Quentin didn't have everyone wetting their pants. Remember when Mr. Logan went rogue?"

"Who doesn't? That lunatic totally broke my PSP in two when he crashed the jet through the main building."

"Why did you leave it there, anyway?"

"I didn't leave it there, Julian did. He said he was going to give it back to me. That bastard."

"Oh. You know, you really shouldn't trust a kid whose codename is Hellion."

'Tell us about it." Interrupted three female voices in unison. The two young men turned their heads to find the Stepford Cuckoos headed their way."He thinks that just because Miss Frost let him lead her advisory squad, that he's the most desirable boy in campus. Which is not a total lie, but not the complete case either. We hear that he has money problems right now."

"Hey ladies." Mark greeted. "Hello Mark, Derrick." They all greeted, putting down blankets on the grass to sit on.

"Hey, I heard they're pinning the whole fiasco yesterday on one of the students." Mark started, taking out a pack of biscuits from his messenger bag. "Any news?"

"Well, they think there's a powerful telepath that wanted to cause a ruckus." Mindee responded.

"Miss Pryde is talking to Blindfold right now." Celeste continued.

"And she's being very, very candid about the things she 'overhears' the other students think." Phoebe finished, in a somewhat disgusted tone.

"How are they even sure a student did this?" Derrick asked, taking a biscuit from his best friend.

"Deduction." The three of them responded."But we don't think it's a student. We've seen what every telepath on campus has to offer, and none of them have what it takes to push aMissSummersinto being homicidal."

"...You know girls, if you weren't all drop-dead gorgeous, people would get freaked out by your whole uni-mind thing." Mark joked, tossing the pack of biscuits to Celeste.

"Wait, wait, wait, it just dawned on me...does that mean if one of you…goes boom boom with joy… then all of you feel it? You all go boom, boom?" Derrick inquired, unable to stop himself from asking the question.

"What a dirty thought. You know, we could fuse your minds into one as well." Mindee suggested, referring to the two best friends. "Let's see how you enjoy being a two-in-one." Phoebe added.

"I'd rather not. Unlike Mark here, I don't want to spend the rest of my life thinking about my next lay all the time. The question was a once in a blue moon kind of thing." Derrick commented.

"On a side note, Miss Pryde wants to talk to you next, Derrick Gallis." All three of them then said, their eyes literally lighting up in the process. "She's thinking that she's very worried about how you're doing, especially since you got knocked out yesterday."

"Oh. Well, okay." Derrick simply responded, scratching the back of his head.

"Hey, Derrick." Mark nudged him on the shoulder. "Kitty wants to see you." He teased, giving it a malicious twist. "Shut up, man." The young man answered, throwing a small piece of his unfinished biscuit at Mark.

"…Oh" The three telepaths' eyes lit up, and once again resumed their normal state. "We didn't know." The three of them commented.

"…huh? Didn't know what?" Mark asked.

"…Nothing." Responded the three Cuckoos after receiving a mental plea from Derrick. "Oh, there's Miss Frost." They immediately pointed, changing the subject in the process. "University Week is coming, and we're planning to make it quite a show." The three women explained. "Care to help us?"

"Uh, what do we do?" Mark asked., to which the three girls smiled.

**Bench area/ 11**:**29**

"So, you're saying you felt it too? That psychic feedback that Emma and her girls felt?" Kitty asked, once again in the spot that she regularly kept her guidance sessions.

"Yes, and no."

"Yes…and no?"

"My mind was not with me. It hurt to stay." The female telepath cryptically responded. She called herself Blindfold, which anyone could surmise, would be from the fact that she always kept a blindfold on. It was to cover the spot where a set of eyes should have been.

"Uh…okay, why did it hurt to stay?" Kitty asked, pushing back a strand of her brown hair from her eye.

"Because Wing would say no. Over and over I'd ask him, but over and over he'd shake his head. Hisako doesn't know that he actually likes her too. But not me. That's why I left. My mind left. But I was brought back."

"…Brought back?"

"Yes. Something pulled me back. A faint whisper. A promise. But not to me. I believe that where I conscious, I would have heard more."

"Okay…did you…hear, who it was to?" There was a tinge of excitement in Kitty's voice, since she knew she had the possibility of a lead right there with her.

"No. No, I was afraid. The voice wasn't welcoming. Rude."

"Could you identify that voice? Is it anyone you know? Was it male or female?" Kitty asked, getting a little ahead of herself.

"No. Neither male or female. It was just…pure fury. The voice, itwas the sound of fury."

**Salem****, New York****/ 2300 **

Incandescent lights bounced off the corridor walls, forcing the golden wallpaper to shine even moreBile fixed his coat before knocking on the door at the end of it, three tines. It took a few seconds before an eye slit was opened, revealing the man on the other side. The man had a black suit on, but his entire face, save for his eyes, was covered in leather. "May I help you, sir?" he asked, not at all concerned about the fact that the man he was talking to looked like something from a Stephen King novel.

"Yes, I'm Mr. Bile." The man greeted. "I believe I have a reservation for tonight's seminar." He then said, to which the man enthusiastically nodded. "Ah, yes, sir, just a moment." The man responded, as he unlocked the door and let the mutant in.

"You've come at just the nick of time sir, the seminar is but a few seconds from opening."

"Lovely." Bile responded, taking off his coat and handing it to the servant.

"Right this way sir." He then said, gesturing to the living room, where a couple of other people were already huddled together. A few of them turned to momentarily glance at the new arrivals, before resuming their attention to the speakers identifying themselves. In the middle of the living room was a young woman in full leather attire. Bondage attire.

"I'm glad you could join us, uh, Mr. Bile, was it?" greeted a middle-aged , lavishly dressed woman, who was standing beside the kneeling fetish demonstration.

"The pleasure is mine." The old mutant responded, as he scanned the room for the person, for the mutant that he was looking for. And as the hostess began to elaborate on a new machine that helped fetishists pleasure themselves, Bile's eyes finally settled on an old man who hid behind a corner, leading to the kitchen. Like the doorman and the young lady, this man had the thematic attire on. Old and overweight, the most distinguishing factor was that anyone could easily see a disfigured man hiding behind the leather-strapped mask. With a sly smile, Bile slipped behind the small crowd and moved his way to the old man in the kitchen. "So, you design little bondage contraptions now. It saddens me to see that you've become such a…helpful member of society." The old mutant remarked, as he watched the masked man try to keep his space.

"What do you want, Bile?" the man asked, with a fearful voice that betrayed his large frame.

"Ah, so you've heard of me." Remarked Bile, a glitter forming in his scarlet eyes.

"It's nothing to be flattered about." The man responded, peering over the corner to see if the crowd was still pre-occupied by his pleasurable invention.

"…You know, I once heard about a mutant that had quite some remarkable psionic abilities. With just a gesture…" Bile raised his palm and opened it. "This mutant could shape his mental energy into chains…shackles…restraints…and if he really put his mind into it, well, he could make Pinhead look like an amateur."

"…I don't want anymore trouble." The other mutant responded.

"Oh? And is this? Playing lackey to some upstate fetishists who have nothing better to do with their money? You know this isn't what you want. You don't want to dominate those willing to be dominated. No. You want to see them cry. See them beg for you to stop their misery."

"…"

"That's why. Mutants like us don't have the privilege of letting time and old age wither us down. There won't be anyone standing over our graves and mourning their loss. No. Mutants like us, we make sure that if no one mourns us in death, then they will mourn our living."

"…"

"So how about it? You say no to my offer, I walk away, no harm, no foul. You say yes? You say yes and we go down in the history books. And you get to act what you really fantasize about."

"…Do I get to spank Britney Spears?"

"Your heart's desire."

"…That sounds...groovy."

"It is. Now... tell me your name."

"...It's Manacle. I'm called The Manacle."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my good man."

"…"

"Now, just to shake off the rust, how's about you show me what you can do with that black and white imagination of yours?" Bile said, gesturing with his right hand to the crowd huddled together in the living room...

**Chapter 2, End. **

**Author's Note; Well, that's it for the second chapter. Hoped you enjoyed (and review). Hihihihi. Anyway, on the next exciting issue, we go inside Peter Rasputin's monosyllabic head, and another X-Member goes crazy!**


	3. Crazy,Beautiful People

**Author's note: Huh, for all the bored of you, don't worry, things start to heat up (or cool down) in this chapter. Oh dear God I hope I pull this off. **

**Madripoor Rose: Thanks. I wanted to put the New X-Men kids down here somewhere actually, but since I didn't follow their book, I have literally no idea who they are. But isn't that golden kid a healer? What's his name?**

**Ryan Schiff: 1.) Thank goodness I never mentioned that Emma was from England. 2.) I did wonder, back in Morrison's New X-Men run, he gave a rule that when Emma was a diamond, she lost her telepathy, thus she and Scott easily got captured by Martha Johansson's uber-mind. But by the time Astonishing rolls in, she can use telepathy again, in diamond form. So did something happen in the middle? Anyway, I actually thought about the Living Monolith making an appearance, but that would take things a little too far. **

**Previously on…the X-MEN try to investigate why Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, suddenly attacked EMMA FROST. Though no one is permanently injured, it leaves both the faculty, and the student body a little rattled, as the possibility that whoever did it is someone residing in the campus. It's not the best way to welcome back the long dead X-Man Peter Rasputin, AKA COLOSSUS, who has still remained silent in the proceedings. Liaison to the administration KITTY PRYDE on the other hand, has been hard at work interrogating the students on what they know. Meanwhile, they still remain oblivious to the actions of BILE, a mutant who has been recruiting silver age villains for his apparently violent cause… **

**Chapter 3: "Crazy, Beautiful People"**

Kitty rubbed her temples as she took a seat on the small bench in the private lockers. The one where the X-Men went to change into their colorful uniforms when the occasion called for them to do so. She always thought that the locker rooms were a pit stop. The place where they needed to go before setting out on a mission, from fighting High Evolutionaries in outer space, to setting a bunch of upstate New Yorkers free from unstable aliens in a high rise. It was there where she went when she needed a little privacy. A little break from the world around her. It was already a little past midnight, and the day went by like it was just a thirty-two page comic-book. She felt that, after spending the day wading through the emotional torrent that are high school students, she deserved a break. Though why she couldn't sleep, she had no idea. "…" Perhaps that's another reason she was down there. Without a sound, the young X-woman began to strip off her clothes. And she remembered a time when she didn't want to change into a costume anymore.

**Peter Rasputin's Room/ 00:08**

Peter Rasputin sat up in a cold sweat, unable to sleep, and turned on the night light on the small table beside his bed. One more night. Just like the night before. And the night before that. The dreams don't stop. It was good in a way, he thought. Those nightmares reminded him that he was still human. Still very much alive. Cold comfort. Every night he would relive it. The trepidation, trapped inside the red, round room, as he waited atop a surgical table, unable to move, unable to change. The fear, not of the act itself, but in its imminence. Every waking moment hounded by the certainty that come an hour or so, the pain would begin once more. Every single night. So much so that time saw it fit to simply leave him there, to go on without him. A mutant powerful enough to bring down mountains, left utterly defenseless. It offended him.

**Locker Room/ 00:09**

There was a time when Kitty felt that her civilian clothes represented normalcy. That keeping them on meant keeping the bad things away. A life away from all the danger, the drama. That's why she hid the costume. She thought that all the things wrong with her life could get locked up in the darkness along with it. Away forever in a little, cardboard box, gathering dust beneath her bed. To be forgotten. But now she knew better. She knew that the bad things creeping between light and shadow didn't discriminate between heroes and civilians. Targets and collateral. She even found out first hand that the most frightening thing in the world isn't a super villain with a badly colored costume. But rather, it was the idea. The idea behind the superpowers. The idea behind the guns and rifles. Ideas that push man to fight their brothers. An inescapable hatred gestating itself within people too afraid to understand something, in fear that doing so might mean that they are guilty of it was well. With a loud sigh, she zipped her uniform to a close, taking her civilian clothes and throwing them into her locker.

**Peter Rasputin's Room/00:10 **

He didn't remember leaving the window open. But he was glad that it was. At least by then, no one worried about Sabretooth climbing through the window and killing everyone in their sleep anymore. The cold, midnight winds danced their way into his room, uninvited, but welcome nonetheless. He was already sitting at the edge of his bed, letting the wind caress his body. It was nice. The complete and utter opposite of the robotic spikes, scythes and lances that got stabbed into him all that time under the ground. Each one was still as vivid as day. A hook. A drill. A saw. A large, serrated blade that looked like a tree with a steel branch. Each one taking its turn with his body. Violating him in the most, nefarious sense of the word. "…" He was a hero. Is a hero. The type that would stare death in the eye, laugh, and then punch it in the throat. Everyone knew that. Which is why he was so ashamed of himself. Because in all that time beneath the Earth's surface, all he ever thought about was how much he wanted to be dead.

**Danger Room/ 00:11**

It never changed. The Danger Room. A large, chamber capable of hard light manipulation, which in effect allowed it to create any simulated person, or environment, that it was asked to. The first time she wandered in there, her teammate Kurt Wagner, better known as the Nightcrawler, asked her to tell the rest of the X-Men that he would be held up in the kitchen. She stepped into the room, not knowing that the X-Men were already commencing with an exercise. She nearly died. Later that day, as she finally managed to feel confident enough to attempt an exercise, her consciousness from decades into the future invaded her body, in an effort to warn the X-Men of the dangers that killing one man would bring. Life was never really easy. Kitty took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and whispered to the air. "Simulation, begin." And with that, she found herself atop a snowy mountain, on a square, cemented battleground, in front of an ancient Chinese temple. Five men wearing orange robes and brandishing long poles. "Let's go." The X-woman instructed, and as such, the man behind her lunged forward, in an attempt to impale her from behind.

**Scott Summers' Room/ 00:12**

"I didn't fall asleep." Emma defended, watching her partner angrily pace the room.

"Yes, you did. You fell asleep. I can't believe you'd fall asleep!" Scott shot back, not looking at her. At which point would be crazy, since practically every male in the campus, and Northern America, wanted to get a chance to see Emma in her night gown.

"Sweetheart, get back to bed." She urged, sitting up.

"Why? So you can fall asleep again?"

"I didn't fall asleep!"

"Yes you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"Okay, I did. But only for a second!"

"And that makes me feel better, how exactly? I mean I heard you snore!"

"I do not…! Scott…I've had… the monumentally unenviable task of absorbing Kitty's memories of all the students she ever talked to, and the strain that puts on me…it's been a very difficult day."

"…I know, I know…"

"Honey, I'm really, really sorry."

"…I really put a lot of thought to that speech you know. I mean University week is just around the corner…"

"I promise I'll make it up to you."

"Better be good."

"I promise."

"Better make me feel like its Christmas and Santa brought me a new pair of eyeballs."

"…Front row seats to Wrestlemania. I'll have that horrid Lita woman do an impromptu lap dance for you." She offered, not needing her telepathy to see that her lover's face was already getting soft.

"…I like how that sounds." Scott answered, a small smile cracking through his angry exterior.

"Oh really?" Emma asked, raising her eyebrows.

"The tickets part, I mean." Scott immediately pointed out, earning an approving glance from Emma. "Edge can have Lita." He continued, climbing back to bed.

"Good." Emma replied, leaning forward for a kiss.

"I much prefer Torrie Wilson."

"Ha ha, very funny."

"No, come to think of it, I want Trish."

"Thin ice, Mr. Summers!"

**Danger Room/00:12**

_"Was it really meant to be? Me finding him?" _Both the man in front of, and behind Kitty closed in on her. Kitty somersaulted backwards, both her hands gripping the man from the rear's shoulders with both hands, pushing him forward. And with just a whim, she used her phasing ability to realign both her, and her assailant's molecules. Since the man in front wasn't able to stop in time, he found himself running right into his comrade, just as Kitty hoped for. _"I mean, what if all of this is just some annoying coincidence?" _Taking her hands off as she landed on the ground, the phasing effect wore off, and the two men found themselves cut in half, thanks to their molecular structure rejecting each other. Kitty didn't bother to look at the end result. Especially since she needed to concentrate on another monk headed her way. _"No. Can't be a coincidence. Can't, just can't."_

He came at a batting position, telegraphing his move miles away. _"Or maybe I'm just interpreting it the way I want it be…" _A lot of people misconceive martial artists as people having a sixth sense of sorts, one that enabled them to feel oncoming danger. Modern movies made it so, but the real fighters, the ones who clocked more field time than Olympic track and field runners, they knew better. It's all about reading movement. A muscle tensing, where the eyes are locked; all signals. And an expert fighter is the one who manages to read them the split-second they're made. _"No, something like this…it has to mean something! It can't be arbitrary. It can't be some cosmic joke." _This one was easy, but it was the next action he'll take that would get tricky. _"God, stop it, just…why should I be the one going out of my way to get his attention? He's the guy for crying out loud!" _

The monk swung from left to right, in which the X-woman easily ducked in avoidance. _"I mean, what, just because he's recently deceased, he forgot how to date? Hello?" _And from this position, the next, fastest possible movement would be a lunge. And that was exactly what he did. Kitty simply leaned to her left, avoiding the pole from impaling her. Now the monk's right side was vulnerable, and Kitty didn't hesitate taking advantage. With her left leg, she kicked the monk behind his right knee, sending him down on it. Then, with both hands, she bent down and grabbed the monk's weapon, kicking him in the gut with her right boot, and pulling at it in the same time. It earned her a new weapon. By that time, the two other, still-armed monks made their way to her, ready to strike.

_"Just stop, stop thinking of him." _One came at her from the right, ready to cleave her skull with a quick, vertical blow. Her ability to phase through solid matter would have made it effortless to avoid her aggressor, but save the two whom she terminated earlier on, she convinced herself to maintain that session as one to hone her physical capacity._ "Okay, there's a crazy kid in campus who possibly wants to kill us all…"_she thought, as she held her newly acquired staff up, in a horizontal position, effectively blocking the blow. With the end of the enemy's weapon right in the middle of Kitty's own, she pushed her left hand to the right, pushing the end of the enemy's weapon in the same direction. _"And not anyone I talked to fits the serial-killer-in-training profile…well, except for Blindfold…" _Gathering her strength, she then slugged the monk on the face with the other end of the pole, from right to left. And in one motion, she spun backwards, in the same direction as her last action, easily avoiding the assailant who lunged at her, then raising her pole arm to the air, and with both hands spinning it around, crashed it onto the man's spine. _"…I wonder what Peter's doing right now?" _

**Danger Room, Master Control Panel/ 00:15**

Peter watched silently as Kitty continued to out maneuver the two remaining simulations. She was faster now. Much more imaginative with her power. Tougher from the look of things. But there was still something that stayed the same. They say that a person's eyes are much more articulate than the tongue could ever prove to be. Even with the mouth bound shut, a person's eyes spoke of emotion, of what went on behind the layered smile or the practiced frown. Peter always thought that, in a lot of cases, words were not needed. After all, people nowadays say a lot of things, but often mean very little. And as he watched the young woman fighting for her life beneath him, he felt worried that she was no longer the person he fell in love with. Until he finally got a glimpse of her eyes. They were as bright as when he last saw her. "Katya…" he whispered, a small smile finally finding its way to his face. If ever there was a light at the end of the tunnel, the prize that karma planned in store, then for Peter, simply to see her again was it.

**Scott Summers' Room/ 00:26 **

"I told you I'd make it up to you, now didn't I?" Emma teased onto Scott's ear, before resting her head on his fast-breathing chest. "You should make it up to me more often, sweetheart." He answered, placing a hand to stroke her golden hair. "Ah. Now didn't this all work out for the best?" she then asked, propping her head up so that her chin was resting on Scott's chest.

"Yeah. "

"You should run your speeches by me more often."

"…You didn't mind control me into forgiving you, right?"

"Huh, I threaten you with celibacy."

"Been there, done that."

"Right, right. You know, I can make everyone believe that you're a eunuch."

"Threat considered, and is approached with maximum caution." Scott replied, putting his arms to the back of his head. Emma smiled and crawled up further, giving her lover a long, soft kiss. "…Careful, Mr. Summers, you're starting to get witty. We wouldn't want that now, do we?" she teased, pushing his hair back, away from his face. "Well, I was getting a little tired of my image. Especially since it involved a stick and a bodily orifice."

"Oh? I find it…charming."

"That's because you're weird."

"Excuse me? I much prefer the term… eccentric."

"That just means weird, but with money."

"Well I am a rather successful…?" The telepath lifted her head, concern engraved in her eyes.

"Emma, what's wrong?"

"Oh, God…" Emma sat up, her hands over her temples. Scott saw a soft, glow of blue energy floating around Emma's face, the manifestation of her psychic power. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up after her.

"Stand up. Stand up, it's downstairs. We need to go… now!" The woman began to get out of the bed, grabbing a white night robe from the nearby chair.

"Emma! Calm down." Scott got on his feet, putting on a pair of jogging pants.

"Scott. It's downstairs."

"What? What do-"

"It's going after Katherine."

"…"

"... Peter is down there with her."

**Danger Room/00:27 **

Peter's heart pounded as he made his way down the steel corridor. A blue tint washed over the entire area, with bright, fluorescent lights lining the top and bottom wedges. He never admitted to anyone, that each time he transforms into his steel body, he'd always think of these walls. How lifeless they were. And how lifeless people must see him as well. But then again, public opinion was the last thing on his mind early that morning, as he stopped in front of the Danger Room's doors. He pressed his palm on the panel beside it, and a voice-code authorization message popped up on the small screen. "Rasputin, Piotr Nikolievitch. Colossus." The panel gave out one, long beeping sound, and a second later, the double doors slid open.

"Katya? Are you alright?" Peter asked, as he stepped inside the Danger Room. Earlier on, he swelled with pride as he watched the young woman devastate her simulated aggressors without a problem, but he found himself very much concerned that she simply crouched to the ground and hugged herself soon after she ended the program. She hasn't moved since. "Katya…it's me. Peter."

"…" She had his back to him, and the only light in the room was the light from outside, behind the open door that Peter had just used to enter the room.

"Katya?" he asked again.

"…"

"…Kitty?"

"You should have stayed dead." Came a cold, cracked voice.

"…?" Peter simply stood in muted shock, unable to stop her words from sinking in like a poisoned arrow.

"Why did you come back? Why…" Kitty turned her head, her eyes covered with tears. "I was getting over you! I was moving on with my life, and you had to come back turn my whole world on its head!" the young woman got to her feet, her once pitiful expression replaced with that of fury.

"…I…"

"Don't. Don't. Don't. No. Stop. Stop it!" Kitty shook her head violently, her hands gripping the sides of her head. "Why won't you stop talking? Get out of my head! Shh! Shh! Out! Get out!"

"Katya…" Peter took a step forward. It tore him inside to see the woman he felt so strongly for being reduced by her emotion to such a wretched. State. But with the knowledge that there was a powerful mind-altering mutant apparently targeting the faculty, his instincts ordered him to keep his distance. Katherine Pryde was, is a strong woman. This was not her.

"Katya, please, let me get you to Emma. She can help." Peter offered, taking another weary step toward the whimpering girl.

"…Hold…me…" Kitty pleaded, her face bowed down, her hands kept to herself in a desolate embrace. "Please? It's so cold…and there's nobody here with me" she further pleaded, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"I'm so scared…" she reached her shaking hand to him, pleading for him to come closer with it.

Peter clenched his eyes, unable to act so tough as to ignore the woman he felt so strongly for breaking apart right in front of him. _"No. It's not her. Don't fall for this." _He thought to himself. _"Emma…Emma, can you hear me? Please pick up my thoughts…" _he then mentally pleaded, trying his best to ignore the deranged young woman. He opened his eyes again, realizing that if he didn't watch her movements, then she might do something dangerous. She took a step forward, and he took one back. "Please…everything's going dark…" she whimpered. _"…She's not dangerous…" _Yes, she was. _"Not like this, she can't possibly…" _Yes, she could. _"Maybe I can stop this…maybe she just needs someone to…" _Succumbing to his emotions, Peter took a step forward.

"…It's so cold…oh God, it's so cold…"

"…" Peter gritted his teeth and opted to ignore everything his instincts screamed at him, taking one, last step forward, and taking Kitty in his arms. "It's okay, Katya, I'm here. I'm here…" he whispered, as the X-woman began to cry harder in his embrace. He really wished that he knew what to say. And as he searched his mind for the words, the right words, he suddenly gasped out loud. "Kitty?" his voice trembled as he looked down.

Kitty had just phased her hand into his chest. "What are you…?"

"It's okay…" she whispered, as her hand dug deeper into him.

"Katya…!" Peter felt Kitty's hand holding on to his heart, and he knew full well that in any instant, Kitty could crush it, killing him instantly.

"I'm saving the world…." Kitty narrowed her eyes. "I'm setting things right again…" and she squeezed her hand hard.

**Chapter 3, End. **

**Next Chapter – Kitty versus Colossus? **

**Author's Note: There you have it. Hope you had fun, and hope you'll review (yes, I have succumbed to the shallowness of that bloody hit chart). Until the next time! Cheerios.**


	4. Cold Hearted Longing

**Author's note: Ooh, the madness continues. Well, that's pretty much all I have to say. **

**Madripoor Rose: I got back into the comics game when my brother brought home a trade paper back of E is for Extinction. New X-Men and Astonishing X-Men are the only X-titles I read anyway. If you want to know how Scott got with Emma, it's mentioned (well not mentioned, done) in the end of "Here Comes Tomorrow", Morrison's last arc. If you want to know, it's actually –SPOILER WARNING- not something he originally wanted. But the only way to avoid the bleak future that presented itself was if Scott didn't give up hope after Jean's death. So The Phoenix uses her 4D mad skills to telepathically force Scott into loving Emma, therefore giving him a reason to 'live' again. –END SPOILER WARNING-**

**Ryan Schiff: Same reason Rachel tried turning Emma to a marshmallow.**

**Dark-bat: Hey thanks. Looks like I have another Peter/Kitty fan here. I have to be honestly though, this isn't a fic that's going to focus on their relationship, so if that's what you're expecting, then I'm sorry but you'll end up disappointed. Anyway, yeah, thanks again for the kind words.**

**Kirayoshi: I'm actually not a Claremont fan. Not really big on dialogue that goes like "Hang on to me…FOR YOUR LIFE!" But I did read God Loves Man Kills II, though I didn't notice any mention of her resistance (probably because I got bored halfway through). No offense if you enjoyed it, it's just not my cup of tea. But I do know that Kitty has this weird immunity to some forms of telepathy or whatnot, that's why she was recruited into fighting that Bogan person, right? (thank you, But hey, like you said, its not immunity, its resistance. Besides, I figured if Emma can give Kitty an uber-psi-migraine in Phoenix: Endsong, then I could do it here ****J**** Anyway, no problem with the whole relationship worshipping thing. I accustomed myself to those when I was still writing in the Resident Evil section. **

**Previously on… a normal day gets cracked wide open when Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, attacks headmistress EMMA FROST in broad daylight. Senior student and low-level pyrokinetic DERRICK GALLIS gets knocked out in the scuffle, but had no signs of physical injury on him. And even though there were no permanent injuries, it did leave both the faculty, and the student body rattled, as the possibility of an aggressor within the institute arises. It doesn't take long for the senior team to conclude that the attack was telepathic in nature, and targets people through an empathic, or emotional connection. With the toll of the days events getting to her, KITTY PRYDE tries to spend her early hours of rest training instead, an idea that she shared, unknowingly, with peter Rasputin, the recently deceased COLOSSUS. As the training session ended, Peter finds Kitty immobile, and rushes to her thinking something is wrong. Something was. Once Kitty realizes Peter in the room with her, she coaxes him into a comforting embrace. It was broken seconds later, as peter finds Kitty's hand phased into his chest, ready to crush his heart… **

**Chapter 4: "Cold-Hearted Longing"**

Gritting his teeth, Peter closed his eyes, and willed himself into a mass of living metal. It, in effect, greatly increased both his strength and endurance, not to mention his size. Not that it made him invulnerable. Just as tough as hell. This mutant power earned him the fitting codename of Colossus, the requisite hard-hitter of the team. He always did wonder if it was just his skin that transmuted into a different substance, or if it was his entire physiology. He argued that if it was only his skin that changed, then the iron would poison his blood. No better time to find out. Kitty shrieked out in anger as she felt the man's heart turn to solid metal, rendering it impossible to crush, given her low level of strength.

"Cheater!" she yelled, pulling back as Peter grabbed onto her shoulders.

"Katya, calm down…"

"Don't talk to me! It's dirty!" she shrieked, phasing herself out of Peter's grip.

"…I don't want to hurt you, Katya…"

"You should be dead! Cheater! Cheater!" Kitty clenched her teeth and phased out of the older man's grip. "I have to make things right. You shouldn't be here. What if everyone else starts returning from the grave? We can't let that happen, no! Nope! Not ever!" she rambled on, as she frantically stepped away from the Colossus.

"Katya, you need help!"

"No! No help! Not from you! What if anyone saw us? What would people say? How obscene!" the troubled woman remarked, hugging herself once again.

"Please, do not force me to subdue you." Peter pleaded, putting his palms up in an attempt to show the young woman that he meant her no harm.

"Oh God, no, there has to be, a balance, yes! A balance. Alive is alive, dead is dead, alive is alive, dead is dead…" Kitty stopped for a moment, as if contemplating on something. "…why don't people stay dead, anymore?" she then asked, tilting her head, her eyes wide open.

"Kitty!" he stepped forward, but Kitty violently backhanded him, resulting in a loud crack that echoed through the room.

"You're dead! You're not supposed to be here! Nasty! Cheat!" she then cried, much too out of herself to even feel the pain from her nearly broken hand.

"…" Peter took a deep breath. _"Just act. Don't let her hurt herself. Stop her. Just stop her…"_

"Death is supposed to have meaning…" she whimpered, her anger once again giving away to despair.

"…" Peter had enough. He made a rush for the hysterical girl. But the issue of sanity aside, she was still an X-Man, and she still knew that she had a very potent power at her disposal. With a deep breath, she let herself fall back, allowing the floor to swallow her whole. The brilliant idea of using the Danger Room's Sonics to incapacitate him came a little too late.

"No!" Peter stopped in his tracks, and got on his knees, his hands pressed on the panels that Kitty sank into. It was, in effect, just like swimming underwater. Kitty needed to hold her breath in order to float through large, solid objects. Losing concentration for even a moment; could end up in a very messy death. And Peter was afraid that Kitty wasn't in the right state of mind to pull it off.

"Katya, come out!" he yelled, standing right back up and scanning the empty room. It frustrated him, the uncertainty of whether the young woman went truly insane and opted to drown herself beneath the ground, or is still very much resolute to end his existence. And as all true heroes do, when faced with either safety for oneself in return for the life of another, or the opposite alternative, he did not hesitate to wish for the latter.

"…Katya! Please…" Peter gritted his teeth, growling in frustration as he frantically checked the floors for any sign of the young woman resurfacing.

"Don't do this…I need you to be okay…"

**Men's Dorm/00:32 **

Mark shifted from side to side, trying to be as comfortable as he could. It was half a minute later that he let out a loud sigh as he sat up from bed, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up. He too, was unable to sleep. It was a tendency that most of the people in the campus suffered from. "…Every room should have a toilet…" he mumbled to himself, as he got off his bed, and lazily stretched his arms. The basic dormitory room had two beds on opposite sides, a common cabinet near the left end of the room, windows by the bed headboards, and the door where the right bed's feet faced. In his first day there, Mark immediately fought for the bed on the left side.It was the unhealthy side-effect of growing up with an urban legend about a sinful nun getting dragged out of the door by her feet. People really should be careful of what they tell impressionable young children. "…?" As Mark's eyes finally managed to adjust to the darkness, they slowly trailed over his roommate's bed, and found Derrick shifting uncomfortably in his sleep. "Derrick?"

**Danger Room/00:33 **

The seconds stretched into an eternity as Peter braced himself for the possibility of an attack. "Katya, please!" Peter shouted, not noticing a pair of wraith-like hands coming out from beneath the floor. "…Kitty?" Peter looked down, and watched in horror as he saw the deranged X-woman's hands grab his ankles. "Oh no…" In half a second, he began to feel himself lose his tangible form, thanks to Kitty's ability to extend her mutant power to anything, or anyone that she whishes to phase. _"At least she didn't kill herself…" _came a cold, comforting thought, as Peter felt himself slowly sinking, getting dragged down into the darkness beneath the ground. If Kitty would let go of him in there, then his body would resume tangibility, effectively fusing with the floor, resulting in what could only be described as a messy way to go. One that Peter didn't wish upon himself at the moment. In any other place, Kitty could kill Colossus without breaking a sweat. All she needed was a little imagination with her powers. But they weren't just in any place. They were in a room built to be a weapon. And though he couldn't use the sonics to subdue her, with the risk of her sinking too far down for them to salvage, there were still other options to be had.

"No…Danger Room! Begin underwater simulation! Now!" he yelled at the top of his steel lungs, and before he could sink further to imminent death, the hard-light reflectors lined between the extendable floor panels began to expand. "What?" Kitty lost her concentration as she felt the floor melt away from her, eventually vanishing into thin air, turning into a blur of pure white light. Before she could even blink, what was once the floor got replaced by a sudden torrent of water, hitting her from all sides with the force of a car. And unlike Colossus, whose steel frame protected him from the assault of water, the impact forced her to lose the breath she was holding, and with the new setting, she was left unable to grab another breath. Peter closed his eyes, unable to watch the young woman struggle with the sudden change of environment. He knew that she needed to be stopped, and without a skilled telepath loitering in the area, he needed to take any opportunity that he got.

**Men's Dorm/00:33**

"Hey man…" His heart stopped as he saw blood trickle down from his best friend's nose. "Oh. Crap. Derrick!" he rushed to the young man's side, succumbing to fear as he watched him begin to convulse, like there was an invisible person holding him by the shoulder and shaking him violently. "Hey, hey man, wake up, come on!" Mark urged, pinning him down to stop from flailing. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, help, help, someone help! Help!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, while keeping his best friend down. "Derrick, wake up." He ordered, leaning closer to his best friend's face. "Hey, wake up! Do you hear me? Derrick, wake up!" Mark leaned back, cursing under his breath. "Somebody, help!"

**Underground Complex/00:35**

Scott and Emma ran down the steel corridors, with Henry and Logan following them from behind. "You sure about this?" Logan asked, putting his flannel shirt on as he ran. "I mean, the girl's got some mixed emotions, she's taking ol' Pete's comeback the hardest." He suggested, leaving the buttons of his shirt open.

"Logan, I seriously doubt that homicide is included in those mixed emotions." Emma retorted, turning a corner. "At least we'll be sure." Scott followed, supporting his girlfriend's line of thought.

"Notice how all we ever try to do is kill each other?" Henry asked as he leapt ahead of the line.

"Yeah, and right now we're trying to stop someone from actually pulling it off." Scott responded, bringing up the rear.

"You mean Pete's down there with…holy $#, why didn't you people tell me this earlier? Let's go!" Logan yelled, picking up the pace. That was when Emma suddenly stopped, and turned, letting Logan go ahead of her. "…"

"…Emma?" Scott stopped as well, clearly wondering what distracted his girlfriend so much.

"…uh, go ahead. Go ahead!" he then ordered as the two other mutants noticed their team leaders dead in their tracks. "Hank, Logan, go." He said again, an order that the two mutants quickly heeded.

"Emma, what is it?' he then asked, turning back to the powerful telepath.

"I'm getting a trace." She reported, looking at the air as if seeing an invisible, blue thread of energy coming from the top of her forehead, all the way through the ceiling.

"You can see where it's coming from?" Scott asked, rushing to her side.

"Shh!" she scolded. Holding her palm up.

"So-" he tried to apologize.

"Shh!" she raised her palm higher, closer to Scott's face.

"…"

"Blast, I lost it."

"…That direction?" Scott asked, referring to the last spot that Emma stared at.

"Yes. Whatever it was, came through there."

"…The men's dormitories are up there."

**Danger Room/00:36**

Peter began to morph back into his organic state as the water began to settle. His Colossal form would have made him sink to the bottom, and since he still needed oxygen to live, he began to swim up to the surface, where he could abort the program. As his eyes adjusted to the salt water, he made out the form of a woman swimming toward him. The insanity that struck Kitty no longer settled for whether or not she could survive the ordeal. All it wanted was the X-Men dead, and it was quite resolute in its aim, whatever the cost may be. Peter felt his head beat harder and harder as he watched Kitty swim closer, her hand outstretched, ready to finish the job. _"Damn it" _Kitty made a dive for his heart, but Peter circled back, avoiding the phase-shifter's grip by just an inch. He wondered if she was intangible that very moment, and took a gambit even as his heart deeply contested, when he clenched his fist and punched Kitty in the gut. Apparently, she wasn't, and the gambit did pay off. A mask of pain covered Kitty's face as she sunk further down, giving more time for Peter to rush to the surface. He did not dare look back at Kitty as the lack of oxygen finally took its toll. All he knew was that he had seconds at best, to rectify the situation before there could be any permanent damage on the young woman whom he felt so strongly for.

**Men's Dorm/00:37**

"You sure?" Mark asked, sitting on the edge of his best friend's bed. "…yeah, don't worry…" Derrick groggily replied, wiping the blood from his nose. "Sorry guys…" he then said, turning to a few students who were huddled in the doorway, students who obviously heard and responded to Mark's plea for aid.

"I can just get Elixir and…" Todd suggested, gesturing with his thumb to the direction down the hall.

"It's okay, really guys, I'm so sorry you had to wake up for this." Derrick apologized again.

"…" Mark turned and stood up. "Sorry about that peeps, guess the show's over." He remarked. "I'll take you all out to pizza for lunch, my treat." He offered, to compensate for the fact that he just woke up a dozen or so students on account of a false alarm. Todd refused out of courtesy, leading the others to do so as well, and seconds later, the young mutants went back to their rooms.

"…Sorry." Derrick muttered in embarrassment as he watched Mark close the door and head back to him.

"…You sure that you don't need to go to the clinic?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

"No, I…really…thanks, it's just a nightmare."

"….Nightmares make your nose bleed?"

"Uh, could be some… ultimate nightmare."

"Come on, don't joke about this. I mean, what if you were having a secondary mutation, or something?"

"Again, with the 'I'm sorry', and here's a second helping of 'thank you'." Derrick responded with a smile, thought it was pretty obvious that it was a smile meant to comfort a worried friend and not anything else.

"At least go and see a healer. Your nose looks like it's a reindeer's."

"…I'm fine, Mark. Really. It's just...my dreams get intense sometimes."

"Intense? I hope you don't mean intense, as in 'my power to generate fire uncontrollably goes nuclear and kills everyone around me when I dream', because that would suck. Mostly for me."

"At least you get to skip the quantum physics practical this Friday if I accidentally burn your face off."

"I wish."

"Heh."

" So…intense, huh?"

"…Yeah, I mean, intense. Like, extreme, and…it's been with me since forever."

"…What do you dream about?"

"…I forgot."

"You…forgot. You forgot this incredibly intense, nosebleed inducing dream thirty seconds after waking up?

"It's personal."

"…"

"I'm sorry for wigging you out."

"Okay. Sure…I'm getting you a glass of water, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks man."

"No problem."

**Danger Room/00:39**

Logan and Henry stood in shock as the Danger Room's massive doors slid open, revealing the two X-men inside. Peter was back to his organic form, breathing some oxygen back into Kitty's mouth. "…She needs air…" he muttered, gently putting her head back down on the floor and pressing his palms against his chest. "What the holy hell happened here?" Logan asked, recovering from the initial shock and running to his comrades' side. Henry followed suit. "Danger Room, lights!" he ordered as he moved to his teammates. There was no response. "Danger Room! Lights!" he ordered once more, this time to a successful result.

"Come on Pete, give me an update here!" Logan demanded, kneeling beside Kitty's body.

"Something possessed her to attack me." He simply responded, before he resumed breathing air back into her lungs.

"And what, you chucked her out to sea?" Logan asked, raising his voice.

"Logan, please." Henry pleaded, just as Kitty began to cough out what was supposed to be the water in her lungs. "She's coming to…" he then noted, helping Peter sit Kitty up.

"Hey kid, rise and shine, we've got a world needs saving." Logan remarked, placing a hand on the disoriented young woman's shoulder.

"God… what happened?" she asked in between her coughing. "I felt like… everything went…" she shook her head and looked at Peter with wet eyes. "Oh God…"

"It was nothing." Peter immediately responded in an attempt to comfort her. "It was absolutely nothing."

"Come on kid, we'll talk about this later, you just need to get yourself some sleep." Logan offered.

"No!" she suddenly yelled out, shaking Logan's hand off of her. "What happened? What did I do? Tell me what happened!" Kitty yelled in frustration with a voice that was barely above a croak, refusing any help from the other X-Men.

"You went mad." Interrupted a female voice, coming from the open doorway.

"Em?" Logan turned to find Emma, with Scott by her side.

"…Rachel suggested that emotions are the catalyst for these sudden bouts of insanity. It's why she attacked me. If that's true, then it explains why you were the next one to go sixes and sevens."

"Me? My emotions?"

"Yes. Your emotions. The ones that are so terribly unobvious, linguistic scholars are needed to decipher them." She sarcastically answered.

"…What? How dare you? You don't know what you're talking about…"

"Oh? Is that right? I felt it, Katherine. Something was out here, a big…bubble of psionic energy, creeping along the shadows, and I actually felt it feel excited! Excited about the very, very loud thoughts that you keep in your head! You knew very well that there's something in this campus that's preying on us. On what we think, on what we feel! And here you are, parading yourself like it's the red light district!"

"…" Kitty wanted to speak, but no words came out. Tactless as Emma was, Kitty knew that she was right. She left herself vulnerable in a situation where she shouldn't have.

"Care to argue further?"

"…I…" Kitty furrowed her brows and turned to Peter, their eyes locking for a second.

"Come on, 'Kitty', do speak up." Emma challenged, crossing her hands over her chest and raising her eyebrow. "God knows you need to get it out of your system. For all our bloody sakes!"

"Emma, shut up." Scott scolded, going over to Kitty and helping her up.

"But Scott!"

"Now's not the time for this!"

"…"

"Yeah, people might begin to think that you don't have a heart in there." Kitty bitterly remarked.

"That's enough." He commented, this time referring to Kitty.

"…Fine" Emma muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.

"You are getting some rest, that's an order." He then instructed as he finally got Kitty to her feet. "And you…" he turned to Peter. "Help her to her room. Make sure she changes before you let her sleep." Peter nodded in reply, bending down, in both a gesture, and attempt to lift her up. Once more, she refused. Everyone stood silent as they watched their youngest member hug herself and leave.

**Chapter 4, End.**

**Next Chapter – Todd gets to do something with his powers?**

**Author's note: It should be blisteringly obvious who the culprit to these psionic attacks is. Don't worry, it's intentional. **


	5. Super Scary and Arbitrary

**Author's note: Okay, so if you follow shows like Buffy, you'd know that the first act is the set-up, the second is a preliminary battle, the third is the draw-in, and the fourth is the climax. So this is basically, well obviously, between the second and fifth. In other words, it's another set-up chapter. Lots of talking heads here to wade through, but the next chapter totally makes up for it, I swear. **

**Madripoor Rose: Hehe thanks, now you're just making me feel warm and squishy inside. I actually just added the part where Peter punches Kitty to end their underwater scuffle before posting the chapter, since I originally wrote it so that when the water hits her, the next scene was already with Peter giving her CPR. But I thought that I'd be going on too long without too much action, so I included the little gut busting scene. **

**Kitty Rasputin: Thanks. I thought about having Logan go loony and all that, but since Mark Millar's finishing up on a story where The Hand brainwashes Logan after killing him, I thought that doing so here as well would be a retread. But, doesn't eliminate the chance that it'll happen though****J**

**RandomMarvelFan: Wow, thanks for the enthusiasm, really. Means a lot. **

**Ryan Schiff: Stop giving away my plot twists:D **

**Kirayoshi: Thanks. I always thought that the X-Men don't just use their powers to win, but always keep a check on circumstance and environment. Don't worry, I have no plans on ignoring character relationships, it's what's going to get them in trouble come the next chapter.**

**Previously on…a ****normal day gets cracked wide open when Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, attacks headmistress EMMA FROST in broad daylight. And even though there were no permanent injuries, it did leave both the faculty, and the student body rattled, as the possibility of an aggressor within the institute arises. It doesn't take long for the senior team to conclude that the attack was telepathic in nature, and targets people through an empathic, or emotional connection. With the toll of the days events getting to her, KITTY PRYDE tries to spend her early hours of rest training instead, an idea that didn't go to well, as the psionic entity that corrupted Marvel Girl possessed her as well, making her lash out at her teammate COLOSSUS, nearly killing him. At the same time, DERRICK GALLIS suffers a violent dream that leaves him with a bloody nose, one that his roommate and best friend MARK VASQUEZ believes to be something much worse than the young mutant was letting on…**

**Chapter 5: "Super Scary and Arbitrary"**

The elevator doors opened, and a middle-aged woman carrying a Pomeranian, stepped off, escorted by her much older, much portly husband. Even though they wore casual attire, anyone with half a brain could still see the extravagance on display. A bellboy greeted them good morning as he stepped into the elevator, while they nodded at him and headed left, the wing where the first twenty rooms were. "I swear, Cecily, I don't know why you had to drag me along for this. You know your sister and I don't get along." The man hissed as his eyes wandered to a beautiful young woman exiting her room.

"Now, now Harry. It's her birthday. You should be there." The woman calmly responded, not even bothering to look at her husband as she spoke.

"Yes, but her…hobbies are quite revolting!" he chided, yelling through clenched teeth.

"To each his or her own, I always say. Besides, as long as it's legal, then it's perfectly fine." Cecily answered, emphasizing on the word 'fine'.

"Really now." Harry responded, rolling his eyes.

"For your information, there are a lot of respectable people into… bondage."

"Alright, alright. As long as she doesn't ask me to tie myself to her bed…" He commented, as they both stopped in front of a door. They could already hear the music, orchestral, from inside.

"Stop that." Cecily scolded, re-posturing herself in preparation.

"Hey…" Harry's brows furrowed as he noticed that the door to his sister-in-law's two-bedroom unit was left an inch open. "That's odd…" Cecily muttered, as she pushed the door open. "Oh…" Harry turned to glance at his wife, before stepping inside before of her. "Margery, dear? It's us…" he greeted, gesturing for his wife to stay a few inches behind him. "The door was open…we…" Harry didn't find the time to finish his sentence, as his mouth instantly dried.

"What is it? Get a move on!" Cecily ordered, pushing ahead of her husband. "No, don't!" he tried stopping her, but it was to no avail, as her eyes rested atop the bloody pile that was the remainder of her sister and her sister's friends. That morning, the whole building heard Cecily's scream.

**Library/ 09:10**

The library was massive. The ceiling was a dome, with wooden panels and white paint furnishing it with n elaborate, Celtic design. As stereotypes go, most of the students who spend their time in the library where the ones who inherited the more unsightly characteristics of mutation. It was only so often that one of the popular kids, save for an occasional Stepford, stepped in that silent hall. That's why a lot of the student's took a break from their reading, to notice a handsome, well-built young man in a sleeveless red shirt step inside. Behind him came the three girls, all in a light shade of blue.

"Thanks for coming along." Mark commented, as the three Stepford Cuckoos placed their handbags on top of a small table. "Well we do enjoy a good intrigue." The three of them responded, their eyes glowing.

"Ha. Users. So, how does this library thing work anyway?" he asked, placing his backpack on the table, along with the three girls' stuff. "Well. First, you get a book. Then you read it. And after, you close the book. " Celeste pointed out, her face twisted in a smirk. "Hilarious. You stink." Replied the athletically inclined student, looking up to read the signs detailing what subject the books on the shelves were about.

"What are we looking for again?" Mindee asked, running up to his side.

"Uh, something about brain stuff. You know…psychic stuff."

"It's over there." Mindee declared, pointing at a portion of the library a couple of shelves away. "Theories on psionic forms and functions." She read out loud.

"Oh hey, thanks."

"So, what are we looking for?" the Cuckoo asked as they began to head for the shelves, turning back for a second to smile at her two sisters trailing behind.

"I'm not really sure. I want to find stuff about…psychic…stuff." He responded, his eyes locked onto his destination. For the uninitiated, the lack of eye contact either meant that the person was so into you, or has no interest at all. Mindee was hoping that in their case, it was the former.

"You've made that exceptionally clear." Celeste interrupted.

"Yes, I have." Mark responded, as they finally got to the psychic section.

"Is this about Derrick?" Phoebe asked, forcing mark to turn and look at her with a dumbfounded look.

"It's all around campus. We heard that Derrick went insane and attacked you, but we know it's a complete lie." Mindee followed. "Right?" Celeste then asked, all three of the girls suddenly staring at him intently.

"Uh…I figured you three had some sort of ulterior motive…" Mark joked, avoiding giving a straight answer to the three telepaths. "I need this for my paper." He then announced, making his way in between the shelves. "…Okay." Mindee answered, glaring at her sisters. "Yes, okay." The both of them responded, allowing Mindee to go in after Mark.

"So…what's your topic?' she asked, as she got to the young man, who was already busy taking books, then shoving them back into the shelf a second later.

"I'm looking for stuff on repression."

"Repression? Maybe you should have tried the psychology section…"

"No, not…I mean power repression. How do I know if someone's hiding his or her real superpowers"

"…Why would anyone do that?"

"Don't know…hopefully, I get to find a 'how'."

**Apartment Unit/9:20 **

"Glad to see you all here." Bile greeted, taking his hat off as a gesture of welcome. The apartment that they occupied was small, about forty square feet wide, barely the size of a studio. A small, circular dining table was the first thing anyone would notice when entering, most probably because it was something people occasionally bumped to on their way inside. There was a kitchen to the right, a restroom beside it, and the bedroom opposite that. There were six people inside, four of them standing on the dining area.

"You act like it's your apartment, Bile." A man commented, stepping out the bed area, which was just separated from the dining room by a small partition. "I like to think that it is. Ladies and gentlemen, the man who started it all." He stepped back, allowing the man to get full attention.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm glad you could all make it." He greeted. Like them, he was already past his prime, with the taxes of time greatly marking his appearance. He had short, brown hair, reminiscent of most people stuck in the seventies. "I'm called Teleplex."

"Teleplex? I heard about you." Interrupted a woman with large, black hair, her eyes hidden by a pair of sunglasses. "You're a psychic, right?"

"In a way." He replied. "I was the one who found all of you."

"…Yeah. And all we have is a cryptic promise from good 'ol Bile here." Added another woman, this one with narrow eyes and pale skin. "What are we really up to?" she then asked.

"When do we do more violence?" Manacle asked. Like everyone else in the room, he was in his civilian outfit, giving the five others a clear view of his disfigured face.

"I really like him." Bile commented, nodding his head.

"In one hour." Teleplex chided in a loud voice, putting all attention once more to himself. "In one hour, we go to town. And we make the people remember just who the hell we are."

**Xavier Institute, East Wing/10:03**

"…" Kitty stared at the sky, trying to empty her mind from the events of earlier that day. Lockheed, a small, purple dragon from the Broodworld, was sitting beside her. Both of them were on a stairwell, on the platform in between the first and second floors, with a massive window showing the school gardens. "Hey there. Where have you been all this time?" she asked her little friend, to which it let out a small growl in response. "Oh? I hope you had fun…" she half-heartedly whispered, patting Lockheed gently on the head.

"Hey, Pum'kin." Greeted a male voice from above the stairway. Kitty didn't have to turn to see who it was. "I said I wanted to be alone." She remarked, still looking through the window.

"Why?" Logan asked, beginning to descend the stairs.

"Because." She responded, trying to make it perfectly clear that she wasn't in the mood.

"Because?" he wasn't buying it.

"Because. Something."

"…There are kids needs counseling."

"They go to Hank when they can't find me. They to like stare at his fur. It's blue."

"Hank needs a rest."

"Why? Did I try to kill him too?"

"…Stop punishing yourself, Kitten. It got to one of the most powerful telepaths in the world. It could have gotten to any of us."

"…"

"You know, these things that happen, things like what you're doing now… I kinda' like it."

"…What? Can you repeat that last one?" Kitty turned to face Logan, a look of disbelief on her face.

"It…reminds me that there's still a kid somewhere in you. Reminds me of what we're fighting for in the first place."

"…"

"You keep me from getting older."

"...God…so I really am a PR stunt." Kitty moaned, looking back through the window.

"No, kid. You're a guidance counselor. A guidance counselor who has a ton of guys crushing over her, and about a dozen more gals admiring her. A guidance counselor who also happens to be a bad-ass ninja. Who can also take anyone of us out without a problem. "

"…"

"You're an X-Man."

"…You rehearsed that or something?"

"Liked it that much, huh?"

"…" Kitty turned and looked at Logan. "It's not that bad." She whispered, a weak smile on her face.

"…Emma edited it." Logan remarked, sitting beside Lockheed.

"Oh. I change my mind then. It sucks."

"I know I don't have to speak for her, but…she feels very sorry about what happened."

"Oh? That's odd; because that would actually entail that she had feelings."

"Come on. She was just… worried."

"Worried? That's why she attacked me?"

"She didn't attack you."

"Logan, how would you feel if… if someone paraded what you felt about Jean right in front of her?"

"…You let her get under your skin."

"So, you're saying it's my fault?"

"No."

"Funny, that's how it sounds to me."

"Kitty…"

"Listen, the last thing I need right now, is to be reminded that a hell-bitch from the skanky ho dimension is running the team." Kitty snapped, standing up. "Come on Lockheed, let's go." She then said, to which the little dragon complied.

"Aw crap." Logan muttered, slapping his forehead.

**Photo Lab/ 10:06**

Most of everyone outside the liberal arts department didn't like going in the photo lab. The news that it was haunted was very well-known, and still persists even though the school itself always gets blown to kingdom come by a maniacal super villain. It was just a small room, with only three students inside. The lights were off, giving way to the red ones on top of the exposure panels.

"…You okay, Todd?" Derrick asked as he took out some film. "You look like a ferret is trying to eat you."

"…I'm getting this weird buzzing in my head." The frail student confessed.

"Yeah, I think that means your going crazy." Chided the third student, an Asian female who looked like she came from a Victoria's secret catalogue. Derrick chuckled at her comment, but his smile soon faded as he noticed Todd beginning to tremble. "Hey man, what's wrong?" he asked, beginning to rush the development of his film. Taking it out prematurely could ruin it after all.

"I was just kidding Todd." The girl remarked, also with a look of concern on her face. She glanced at Derrick, almost as if asking what they were supposed to do.

"Yeah, yeah, I…I just feel…" Todd scratched his head, and then took off his glasses to clean them.

"…Todd?" the girl stepped closer. "What's wrong?"

"I need to go. Someone's calling." He cryptically responded, taking his denim jacket and leaving the room.

**War Room/ 10:07**

Unlike the Danger Room, most of the student body, especially the undergraduate batches, didn't know of the War Room. And they shouldn't. The War Room wasn't a room per se, but rather, it was a shared, psychic projection, between all the present senior members. Much like the Danger Room's simulated environment, it was up to the telepath to conjure the environment that they would find themselves in. And as is the usual case, the telepath kept it simple. Emma, Scott, and Henry sat on white, leather chairs, floating in the midst of gigantic, floating words, pulled out from Emma's memories of the Les Miserables musical and set against a light, blue backdrop.

"Are you certain that Peter didn't want to join us?' Emma asked, crossing her legs.

"He said that he preferred to take the time and think about his early morning fight for survival." Henry responded.

"Any progress on the chart?" Scott asked, moving things along.

"Well, it does coincide with Emma's statement."

"That it was a student in her Ethics class who caused all this?"

"Yeah. Rachel was crossing the corridor, just outside of the room where Emma was. That's why no one noticed the psionic entity that Emma described she saw a few hours ago. There was no need for it to manifest since the target was just outside the room. When the psychic explosion erupted, Emma and girls felt the worst of it, Blindfold too, and she was in the next room." With the aid of Emma, Henry began to project a psychic image of a small map, appearing in the middle of the room.

"Now Lee was in the comfort room, one floor below. Said he felt something, but just shrugged it off. Laney and Martel were in the science labs, that's two floors above, they mentioned getting a chill down their spines, but nothing as dramatic as with you and your girls."

"Basically, the classroom was the hot point. The farther the students were from it, the less they felt the feedback." Scott commented.

"…When we were in the Underground Complex, I managed to isolate a psionic entity. And I only noticed it when it was directly below our room." Emma noted. "The one you pointed out as coming from the men's dormitory."

"Pull a list of all the male students in Emma's ethics class." Scott instructed, and a second later, twelve projected files popped out of nowhere.

"No telepath." Henry noted, as each file slid by like it was floating on an invisible panel.

"That's the dilemma. The only telepaths present were my girls." Emma commented.

"No chance of them causing this?" Henry asked. "I mean, doesn't have to be them, them, could be a more powerful telepath forced them to do it. Hide his or her tracks."

"Happened before." Scott added.

"Two things." Emma pointed. "First, I have a telepathic rapport with my girls. I would have known. Second, my girls are the top telepaths of the student body. They couldn't have been swayed. The only reason Esme managed to overwhelm the uni-mind was because she had an intimate connection that she easily exploited."

"You almost sound like you're proud." Scott remarked.

"Esme isn't back is she?" Henry asked, resting his head on his paw.

"Scott." Emma turned and looked at her lover. "…Someone's here for you."

**Faculty Lounge/ 10:09**

Scott shook his head as he found himself sitting on the living room, which doubled as a lounge for the senior members of the faculty whenever they felt like it. He looked around, glancing at Emma sitting beside him, and Henry on the chair, their eyes set on the television, though their minds were still in a different place. "Mr. Summers? Sir?" came a weak voice, coming from a frail young man standing in the doorway. He had a mobile phone in his hands, and it was still ringing.

"Yes, son?" he asked, standing up, eyeing the student suspiciously. "…Is that my mobile phone?" he asked, noticing the Nokia in his hands. He had left it in his office earlier on, that's why he didn't hear it ringing.

The boy at the door reminded him of what he used to be before a strict training regimen gave him a perfect physique. Thin, awkward, eyes hidden beneath a pair of thick glasses. "You…have a message." He declared, hampered by a case of stuttering.

"It's urgent." Todd then said, handing the phone over to the headmaster with both hands. "…and no one was answering."

"…" Scott made his way to the student, taking the mobile phone and then answering it.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Mr. Summers." Greeted a female voice.

"Who is this?"

"Director Hill. I trust you already know who I am." Responded the woman on the other line. Scott stopped as he heard the name, and as he recognized the multi-government funded organization that backed it up. He signaled for the student to give him some time alone, and returned to the woman on the phone.

"Miss Hill…look, if this is about the Breakworld debacle, yes, Jean did come back, but it was only for two days." He immediately explained, even before the woman on the phone could get to a point.

"This isn't about the Phoenix, Mr. Summers, though we will be having a talk about that soon. Shi'Ar high-ups have been grilling us about their missing spacecraft."

"Oh. Uh, tell them to check for the ship in an Eleka'an event horizon."

"Gladly."

"Okay... so what is this about? If you're looking for Logan…"

"We may need the X-Men's help."

"As long as it has nothing to do with genocide and S.W.O.R.D., then we'll consider."

"Actually, its cases like these that prompt us to turn to such drastic measures."

"…You have a mutant problem."

**Radio**** City****, Music Hall Exterior/ 10:28**

A large crowd gathered outside the historic theater, waiting patiently for the security to allow them inside. It wasn't usual for an awards show to begin so early in the morning, but then again, the hall was booked for the whole month, and it was the only time that the gay and lesbian community could fit in for their pink festival. Anyone with a dark imagination could easily come up with a way to cause a bloodbath that chilly morning. And as the case usually goes, someone did. No one noticed what seemed like steam rise from the tunnels, mild at first, slithering its way to the crowd. The pavement beneath it began to hiss, thanks to an acidic compound inside the mist.

"Ladies, and gentlemen!" came a thundering voice from behind the huddled mass of people. A few of them turned, finding a tall man, covered in head to toe with a long, brown trench coat and a hat to match. Two police officers took notice from a corner, stopping and staring at the man, to see if he would cause trouble. With a callous smile, Bile took off his hat, revealing his scarlet eyes and violet skin, much to the horror of the on looking men and women. And with his smile permuting to a sadistic grin, he watched as the mist settled at their feet, knowing full well what his colleague could do with it. The two officers were already making their way towards him, not that it would matter.

"I am called Bile. And in the spirit of brotherhood…" he raised his hands to the air, like a priest giving a sermon. "…and acceptance…" he added, as his eyes fell on the title of the event flashing by the rooftop. "…I suggest you all run." And with his last words, the mist rose in full force, engulfing the people in its lethal grasp.

**Chapter 5, End **

**Next Chapter- The X-Men versus the band of oldies! **

**Author's note: A chapter with no one going insane? Shocking! Well, the next chapter fixes all of that. Hope you enjoyed, do review. **


	6. The Not So Big Fight Scene

**Author's Note: Okay, this is pretty long, on account that there's almost no dialogue. Good luck wading through this one. **

**Kitty Rasputin: At first I thought of Rachel to talk to her, but I decided to keep things strictly on the Astonishing crew. Yeah, Logan has a thing for letting the kids go and let themselves fix their own problems, with his role as someone who contains the damage should damage come (New X-Men), but seeing as next to Peter, he's the closest to Kitty (training in Japan) and in the 1st Astonishing X-Men, he and she had a little talk about not worrying, that it would only be natural for him to come to her aid. Of course, I didn't follow Kitty's continuity before Astonishing, so if I'm wrong in a big way, then, uh, oops. About Scott, well, he let his baggage go back in The Phoenix: Endsong, where he proved that he moved on, and loved Emma now (never seen him cry so much actually), so I may find a hard motive for him going crazy, especially since he already vented on the whole En SabahNur thing while pummeling Xorn. **

**RandomMarvelFan****: Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I like Bile too, hehe. Doesn't have any flashy superpowers. **

**Madripoor**** Rose: I'm surprised I still have a plot somewhere around here…**

**Previously on…a normal day gets cracked wide open when Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, attacks headmistress EMMA FROST in broad daylight. And even though there were no permanent injuries, it did leave both the faculty, and the student body rattled, as the possibility of an aggressor within the institute arises. It doesn't take long for the senior team to conclude that the attack was telepathic in nature, and targets people through an empathic, or emotional connection. With the toll of the days events getting to her, KITTY PRYDE tries to spend her early hours of rest training instead, an idea that didn't go to well, as the psionic entity that corrupted Marvel Girl possessed her as well, making her lash out at her teammate COLOSSUS, nearly killing him. Meanwhile, a band of mutants, led by the psionic TELEPLEX and the sadistic BILE, begin an assault on the people of New York…**

**Chapter 6: "The Not So Big Fight Scene"**

"You know it's not your fault Logan." Henry remarked, comforting his teammate as he took his lab gown off. "What?" Logan turned to his blue-furred friend. "Didn't get you there."

"Hank's talking about S.H.I.E.L.D." Scott explained, placing his ruby quartz shades in a small container, and then hiding it inside the locker.

"…Oh. That." Logan took a deep breath as he readjusted his gloves, always the final touch for when he was suiting up. "You're face went pale when Scott mentioned it." Henry then mentioned.

"That S.H.I.E.L.D. needs us for a job? Well, yeah, the only reason they're asking us for help is because I killed about four hundred of their agents."

"It's a mutant problem Logan." Scott corrected, even though he knew that his teammate's words rang true as well. When The Hand brainwashed Logan as their very own person of mass destruction, they sent him on a death trip that resulted in the aforementioned body count. One that had him threatening the lives of every student and faculty member of the Xavier Institute in the process. Needless to say, he still felt bad about it. With S.H.I.E.L.D. still recuperating, the most that they could help with was to offer a clean-up crew to take care of injuries and damage.

"Besides. The Fantastic Four and the 'new' Avengers are busy with their own sagas at the moment." Scott added. "Perfect time to make friendly with the public."

"That's right." Henry noted. '"What do you think, Peter?" he then asked, attempting to get at least one syllable from their silent teammate.

"…I simply wish to do some violence." He responded, making his teammates stare at each other in worry.

**Women's Lockers/10:23**

"…" Emma took her shirt off, her eyes fixed on her open locker, obviously in avoidance with making eye contact. "…" Kitty did the same, unlacing her sneakers, keeping her eyes on the ground. "…" Emma reached for her hairpin, but fumbled at the last moment. With a loud click, which was the only sound in the room, it fell by Kitty's feet.

"…Emma." She picked up the hairpin and handed it to the blonde telepath, still not making eye contact.

"…Thank you, Katherine." She responded, staring at the wall as she reached for her hairpin. "How thoughtful of you." She added, as she began to fix her hair, brushing her golden locks back.

"…Yeah. It's a human thing. Having a heart and stuff. You wouldn't understand." Kitty answered, throwing her shoes into her locker. "…I must say. You're comebacks are getting as fresher and fresher." Emma coldly replied.

"Oh? You thought I was kidding?"

**New York,**** Street Intersection/10:28**

Teleplex leaned closer to the control panel that was the area once his bed. He sat on a chair, his eyes shifting between the many screens hooked together in a terminal that took up the entire wall. Each screen changed at a thought, since Teleplex carried the ability to keep a psychic fix on any target he chooses, projecting them on any broadcasting tool he had. It was the closest thing that a non-telepath had to pure omniscience. Right now, his eyes fixed themselves on the chaos in front of the Radio City Hall. "Let's get this ball rolling, people." He said with a smile. The radio by his side suddenly began to static, attuning itself to the police scanner's frequency. "Should be fun. This is Teleplex on all points, police should be on your tails in three, it's going to take them longer to mobilize the big guns."

Bile chuckled in contentment as he watched the people before him scream in panic as the acidic mist ate away their skin. The two police officers on the scene braved the lethal spray as they worked to get the crowd to safety. By then, all attention was on the ruckus in the streets, that no one noticed a large man steeping out of a van parked on the opposite corner of the street, dressed in black, leather straps that covered his entire body, save for his cold eyes.

He raised his massive arms to the air, and a pair of yellow, psionic chains manifested themselves. With a thought and a gesture, Manacle lashed the chains forward, willing them to wrap around the Radio City sign hanging down the side of the building. "Manacle." He heard Teleplex talking to him through a small radio connected to his ear. "Company's coming."

"On it." The large man responded. Gathering his strength, he used the psionic chains to tear it off; flinging it onto a police car that came from his left. "Oh shi…" The African-American police officer swerved to the left, avoiding the large sign that crashed down the street. Another patrol car that just followed however, didn't fare so well, as the large, rectangular sign nearly cut it in two.

By then the people were in hysterics, and their screams only grew louder as they saw a thin, pale woman clad from head to toe in silver suddenly elongate, her entire body looking like elastic. Her upper torso sped past a group of people like a missile, and before they could even comprehend the situation, the woman circled back, trapping them in a tight loop. The other passersby could only look in horror as the woman stretched upwards, bringing the people along with her, and in a fit of diabolical laughter, hurled them across the city block. Their screams only ended along with the loud, blunt noise as their bodies hit the pavement. "Coil." She heard Teleplex whisper to the radio on her ear. "To your right, three patrol cars. Break them." He instructed, to which the mutant gleefully complied.

**Library/10:30 **

"Look, says here that a telepath can use his or her gift to conjure a mental block on someone." Mark noted, his eyes glued to the hardcover book in his hands. All four of them were back on the table, each one with a book on advanced telepathy.

"Yeah. We do it when we think that lethargic Todd Roberts boy will get a higher grade on multiple choice exams." Mindee responded, with her two sisters nodding in agreement.

"No, not mental block, mental block, I mean mental block as in literally."

"…We're sorry, what?"

"…Uh… 'when a mutant, or a metahuman's powers become far too destructive, or potentially destructive, then a mental block, a telepathic wall that could suppress the mutant, or metahuman's ability to use his or her powers, may be used in an ethically utilitarian manner'."

"I thought we're looking for mental repression?" Phoebe asked.

'This is the closest thing I have." Mark replied.

"So basically, it's making someone forgot that he or she has powers." Celeste chided, resuming the topic.

"Right. But…it's more than that. You could forget you had powers, but still end up accidentally using them. This mental block thing not only makes you forget you had powers, it also stuffs it in lock and key, so you don't get to use it."

"Effectively crippling you." Celeste concluded, reaching her hand out for the book that Mark was reading.

"Wait, uh, I'm still…" Mark flicked a few pages, signaling that he wasn't through with the book.

"Hold on a minute, if there's a telepathic technique like that, why don't people use it on every super villain in America?" Phoebe asked.

"That's what I'm looking for." Mark responded, looking at the headings of the chapter outline.

**New York**** , Street Intersection/10:34**

As the streets began to clear, the police started to open fire, using their patrol cars to cover themselves for protection, keeping the three mutants in a circle of steel and gunfire. "Bile, get behind Manacle." Teleplex ordered, to which he quickly complied, as the much larger mutant's psionic chains began to lash violently at high speeds, deflecting the bullets., while Coil's elastic body managed to protect him from the gunfire of the opposite end.

"Give Manacle room to maneuver." Came the next order, and just as the first barrage stopped, Bile stepped out from behind Manacle, both his hands equipped with Uzis. Without reluctance, he opened fire, sweeping his hands so that all four patrol cars had their fill of bullets.

"Manacle, take their protection away." Teleplex then instructed, as the cops were now busy keeping their heads down to avoid getting a headshot. It gave the large mutant time to propel his psionic chains onto all four police cars. Bellowing out loud, he pulled them all up, much to the police officers' shock. "Make it rain." Came his next order, as manacle then slammed the cars down on to the scrambling cops.

On the other side, Coil had no problem taking care of the policemen that attempted to eliminate her. As their bullets could not penetrate her elongated body. There were three patrol cars, covering six armed officers. It hardly seemed fair. Stretching her arms forward, she let her fingers grow longer and longer, until they found themselves tightly wrapped around each of the cops' necks.

"People." Interrupted Teleplex into their radios. "We've got super heroes." He warned, prompting them to ready themselves for battle. For Coil, it was just another way of telling her to finish what she was doing. "Sorry boys." She whispered, as she hoisted all of them up on their necks, and slammed them on the side of the building to the sound of a loud thud. If that wasn't enough to kill them, then the fall certainly would conclude the matter. As the last body lost its life to the pavement, the three super villains finally saw the X-Men, all in a row, standing in the middle of the street.

"…Damn. I really wanted to fight the Avengers." Bile uttered under his breath, as he and Manacle joined Coil, falling in line, with the old mutant standing in the middle. "X-Men." He called, raising his arms as if welcoming old friends. "I'm glad that we finally got a super hero team's attention."

"You could have sent us a memo." Shadowcat responded.

"Let me introduce ourselves. I'm Bile. And we here are called the Silver Thorn."

"Well, we'll make it very simple for you people." Cyclops began. "Go in quietly, and we don't tear your heads off your shoulders."

"We don't do favors, slim." Wolverine commented, his eyes on the bodies of the dead officers. "Let's make them suffer." He then declared, as he charged at the three super villains. "…Wait, S.H.I. E.L.D. said there were six…" Cyclops muttered, unable to prevent the feral mutant and the Shadowcat from going ahead of the team, with Colossus soon following. Emma remained behind Scott, while Henry strafed to the right.

"Tremolo." Teleplex called, giving the go signal for the mutant in hiding. A second later, a female mutant with flowing, black hair flew in from behind the X-Men, a blur of violet as was the color of her caped costume; and before Emma could act on the new presence she felt, Tremolo released a concentrated blast of vibro-sonic energy, aimed straight at the X-Men. Cyclops' reflexes were a second faster, as he jumped to the side, avoiding the brunt of the impact, but suffering it nonetheless.

Emma on the other hand, didn't fare so well, as the force of the concussive blast knocked her unconscious. "Emma!" Cyclops cried, as he turned his optic blasts on the airborne mutant. She immediately swerved to her left to avoid the initial blast, returning fire soon after, which too proved unsuccessful. "Hank, get her to safety!" he then ordered, as his blue furred friend immediately did so.

"Manacle. Cyclops." Teleplex then instructed, as the large mutant channeled his psionic energies into hook-ended chains in an attempt to finish the distracted mutant off. It proved itself in vain though, as Colossus quickly jumped in the hook-ended chains' path. "…Take care of him." Came the next order for Manacle. The massive mutant immediately complied, as the chains wrapped themselves around Colossus' entire body.

"Let's play, big man!" he yelled, as he threw the steel mutant right into a café on the side of the building to his right. Before the dust could settle, Manacle jumped right into the building with Colossus, ready for a fistfight to finish the mutant off. Shadowcat stopped as she watched Manacle take advantage of Colossus' weakened state, her emotions once again getting the best of her, as she didn't notice Bile take aim with his Uzi. "Take her down." Teleplex ordered with a sick smile, one that he shared with Bile as he pulled the trigger. "Kitty, look out!" Cyclops screamed, in the midst of his energy shoot out with the flying mutant.

**Library/10:40**

"Well, there's no telling what side effects it could have, right?" Mindee asked.

"Guess so. Uh, criticisms on the use of mental suppression…" Mark bit his lower lip as he skipped all the way near the end of the book. "Oh here… 'it takes extreme telepathic strain to conjure a mental block, and has only so far proved successful to oneself or ones relatives, through the natural telepathic rapport that they share'…uh, and… 'attempts to perform mental blocks during psychic surgery have all proven much complicated, as the patient may suffer from losing even their most simple motor and sensory functions, as they are linked closely with their capacity to use their mutant or metahuman abilities'…"

"…Makes sense." Phoebe remarked, closing the book that she was reading.

"Huh. It would be no use to reform someone if they won't be any use after." Mindee added.

"…Case closed." Celeste concluded.

"Uh…well, you know, if you ladies have anything else to do, I'm fine here, I got the lead anyway…"

"Still looking for anything?" Mindee quickly asked, giving her sisters glances to stay.

"I… want to see if there are signs, uh symptoms. How to tell if someone has a mental block." He said, his mind now completely on Derrick. "…Like dreams."

**New York****, Street Intersection/10:41**

The rapid gunshots snapped Shadowcat back to reality, a little too late, as a bullet clipped her on the shoulder. "Kitty!" Wolverine turned and found the young woman rolling on the ground, clutching her bleeding shoulder. "Cover her, Logan!" Cyclops ordered, next. Wolverine nodded, his view of her suddenly got blocked by a massive, silver wall though, as Coil's body expanded all around him. "Keep him away from everyone else." Teleplex ordered, as Coil's arms came from behind the feral mutant, grabbing his wrists, and then hoisting him up to the air. "Let go off me elastic-bitch!" Wolverine shouted, right before Coil began to violently skid him across the side of a building.

"Damn it!" Cyclops rolled away from another blast as Tremolo swept by. "…okay, change of plan." He then muttered as he avoided another blast, jumping forward and blasting the base of a streetlight. The force of his optic blast managed to tear right through it, sending it crashing down, right on top of Tremolo as she sped by.

"Tremolo!" Teleplex's call fell on deaf ears as the woman crashed to the ground, completely unconscious. "One down." Cyclops muttered, catching Bile take aim at him with his guns. "Oh…" Bile opened fire. With agility that betrayed his muscular frame, Cyclops cart wheeled out of the initial spray's way, landing with an optic blast, which Bile spun sideways to avoid. "Shoot the car." Teleplex then ordered into the gun happy mutant's earpiece, signaling him to an upturned SUV just two feet behind Cyclops.

"Right ahead of you." He muttered, as he pulled the trigger, sending a half a dozen or so bullets right past Cyclops, and onto the gas tank of the upturned SUV. "Wha-" Cyclops turned just in time to see the spark rapidly expand into a flame. A second later, the SUV erupted into a ball of fire, with a shockwave that brutally smashed against the mutant leader's body, knocking him out almost instantly.

"The beast man is headed for you." Teleplex then informed Bile, as he found the fearsome mutant on all fours, running towards him. "Holy-" Bile raised both Uzis and opened fire, trying to hit the nimble mutant, who leapt from left to right in order to avoid getting littered with gunfire.

"Move to the right, now." Teleplex instructed. Bile immediately heeded his order, as he stepped to where Teleplex directed him. "Mist! Full blast!" Teleplex then ordered. And as the Beast made a lunge for Bile, a massive concentration of acidic mist, erupted from beneath the manhole directly below the feral mutant. Bile covered himself as the manhole cover shot straight up, hitting the Beast on the gut, followed by a blast of mist with the potency of a geyser, engulfing his entire body. "Thank you for coming." Bile hissed as he watched the Beast get propelled over him, landing on top of a van all the way to the other block. It was enough to put him down for the count.

"Felt like I waited down there forever." The Mist Mistress remarked as she climbed out of the sewers, joining the battle. She still had her classic green, body costume, with yellow seams on. A sudden cry of pain made the both of them look up, as they watched Wolverine jettisoning himself back to the ground, after managing to scratch Coil in just a second's lapse of concentration. "Blimey." Bile muttered, as he watched the Wolverine tuck and roll as he landed, brushing off four stories worth of a fall without so much a wince of pain.

"Not good." The Mist Mistress remarked, stepping behind Bile, as Wolverine began to sprint towards them. "Just fine." Bile responded, throwing his Uzis down and reaching for something in his trench coat. The Wolverine let out a feral cry as he made a jump for the old mutant, who in turn pulled out a sawed-off double barreled shotgun from his coat. _"Oh fu-!" _Bile pulled the trigger point black, the force of a wrecking ball, right into Wolverine's chest, sending the mutant flying back.

A loud crash, the sound of thunder then echoed from inside the building, as Manacle found himself crashing through another wall, adjacent to the one where he threw the steel hero in earlier, and out into the street, after a strong right hook by the Colossus. Both Bile and Mist Mistress turned their heads to the right, their eyes following their weakened comrade as he slammed into the building on the other end of the street. "Mist. Help him out." Teleplex ordered.

"Sure thing." She responded, as she rushed to the steel mutant who stepped through the large hole in the wall. "Hey, muscleman!" she called, waving her hands, releasing a spray of concentrated mist from them, straight to Colossus' direction. "Wha-" Colossus used his arms to shield himself from the sudden gust of acid. Even in his current form, he could feel the heat singe at his metallic skin, letting out a trail of smoke as the pain settled in. "Feel that, honey?" she taunted, as the shock to the metal man's system forced him down on one knee. "That's you melting."

**Library/10:50**

"Okay, this book has nothing." Mark announced in exhaustion. There was already a tall pile of books in the middle of their small table.

"Well, this one's a bust too." Celeste declared, closing a thick book in front of her.

"Maybe…maybe we can just…reference it to similar cases of mental therapy." Phoebe suggested.

"…huh?" Mark turned to the blonde girl, who looked like she had a brilliant idea brewing as her eyes shone. "That's right." Mindee added. "Psychic surgery." Celeste brought up, her yes now lit up as well.

"Okay, English for the non-psychic?" Mark asked, to which the three girls turned at him in unison.

"When a person undergoes psychic surgery, the telepath uses psionics to expose or suppress. There have been cases when people undergoing suppressive surgery started sleepwalking. Routinely doing what they are not supposed to do in their sleep." All three of them explained.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's close enough." Mark muttered, feeling resolute that his suspicion of Derrick was one worth exploring. "So, if this rings true for mental blocking, then a lousy job could mean that a person won't have his or her powers locked away…instead, he or she'll lose control over it."

"It's a possibility." Mindee responded, her eyes returning to normal.

"…You're trying to find out if what's happening in school is accidental or not, aren't you?" Celeste then asked. "…Just trying to help." Mark responded, not quite ready to point his finger at his best friend just yet.

**New York**** Streets/10:52**

"No!" Colossus mustered his strength, trying his best to ignore the crippling pain. He then reached his hand out, grabbing the woman by the collar, prompting her to stop. "That's me sending you to orbit." He corrected with anguished lips, readying his fist to even the score. Mist's eyes shot wide open as fear struck her numb. "Manacle!" Teleplex yelled, prompting the still weary mutant back to action.

Extending his hand, Manacle forced another band of chains into existence, wrapping themselves around Colossus' raised arm, preventing him from striking the Mist Mistress. With his other hand, manacle conjured another handful of psionic chains, this time ensnaring Colossus' feet. "Time to fly!" he shouted, pulling at his feet to make him lose balance, not to mention lose his grip on the Mist Mistress' collar, and then at his arm to fling him in the air.

"Coil!" Teleplex called, to which the female mutant rocketed to the mutant in the air. In an instant, Colossus found himself wrapped beneath Coil's elongated body. "Get rid of him." Teleplex then instructed, as she went high up the air, rapidly unwinding in the process. With the laws of motion taking over, Colossus was literally flung in two blocks' distance, crashing into the middle of a skyscraper.

"That takes care of that." Bile commented, as he unloaded another slug to Wolverine's cranium, just as the Canadian as getting on his feet. "And for the time being, that takes care of you."

"Bile." Teleplex called. "I'm not getting a fix on the girl…she's…"

"What is it?" Bile asked, scanning the street for any signs of the mutant that he shot.

"…Behind you!" Teleplex suddenly shouted, as he finally fixed on Shadowcat, who had just phased herself back to the surface.

"Wha-" Bile's question turned into a loud gasp as he felt something move inside him, forcing him to his knees. "All of you, stand down…" Shadowcat ordered through gritted teeth, as she stood behind Bile, her hand clamped on the old mutant's heart. "…or chuckles here gets his pacemaker jumpstarted." She threatened, getting the super villains' attention.

"You don't want to do that sweetheart." Bile responded in a taunting voice.

"Oh, I think I really do." Shadowcat replied, in between her pained breathing, her eyes shifting between the four other villains. "…What? You think my super power is to never worry about finding a Halloween costume? Crush my heart girl, you get my blood in your hands. And any liquid in my body has an entire litany of diseases waiting to infect someone they come in contact to."

"…You're bluffing."

"Twenty bucks says you get syphilis and a nasty case of dandruff, pussycat."

"…"

"Tremolo. Get him out of there." Teleplex whispered to the recovering woman's ear. "Now." With a burst of energy, Tremolo got on all fours, sending out a wave of vibro-sonic energy, aimed at the ground near where Bile knelt. "Bloody hell." The old mutant muttered, shielding his body with his arms, as the force blast caused the ground to erupt. Shadowcat's phased form protected her from the blast and the debris, but the force managed to propel Bile backwards, right through the super heroine, and out of her fatal grip.

"Air support!" Teleplex ordered, to which Coil used her elastic body to act as a hammock, catching Bile before he could land on the pavement, and then gently setting him down soon after. Shadowcat's blood loss began to take its toll, preventing her from taking anymore action against the band of mutants.

"…Huh, pull out people." Teleplex then instructed. "The Fantastic Four and those 'New' Avengers are on their way. We can't handle all of them at once." He explained. "Down the sewers." Bile instructed, still gathering his breath. "This is your lucky day X-Men!" he then taunted, in typical villain fashion, as Manacle threw a manhole cover off. Mist Mistress jumped in first, with Manacle coming in second. "We get to finish this soon." He threatened, as Coil carried him down into the sewers. "Tremolo, get out of there, now." Teleplex reiterated, as the mutant shakily got to her feet.

"Tremolo, was it?" interrupted a female voice from behind her. Tremolo turned to find Emma Frost, in her diamond form, with her fist raised. "I owe you pain." The diamond woman hissed, punching the older woman on the jaw with enough force to crack concrete. Teleplex closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, knowing full well that they won't be able to salvage the situation.

"Sir?" he heard Coil from his earphone.

"Go on. There's no telling if Iron Man has x-ray in that suit of his. We can't risk staying any longer." He responded, fixing his screens on the incoming aircrafts.

The humming of loud motors then began to fill the air, as both the Fantasticar and the Quinjetta hovered over the scene. The Iron Man was the first one out, as he flew down to see if he could be any help to his beaten colleagues. Johnny Storm, otherwise known as the Human Torch, came down after, jumping right out of his seat on the Fantasticar and flaming on to enable his own flight.

"Mr. Summers?" Reed Richards, leader of the Fantastic Four called, tuning in his frequency to the earpiece of the mutant leader. "We came as soon as we could. Is everyone alright?" he asked, his worried wife looking down at the devastation. "Are you crazy, stretch? Look at the streets! That ain't alright!" The Thing chided, pointing down at the scene. "I'm going down, Reed." Susan added, creating an invisible platform that she used to safely drop herself down to ground level. Shadowcat was already helping the Beast on his feet, ignoring the pain and weakness that racked her body. Wolverine was still busy growing his face back.

"There are more than a dozen civilian fatalities here, Richards." Cyclops muttered, catching the Fantasticar's frequency. He was leaning on another upturned Rolls Royce, blood streaming down from a wound on his forehead. "…and a ton more injured. Get S.H.I.E.L.D. clean-up down here." He muttered, turning his earpiece off and leaning his head back on the cold steel. "Media's going to chew our heads off for this."

"Not if we give them someone else's head instead." Emma corrected, holding up an unconscious Tremolo by the cape. "And this one just might do."

**Chapter 6, End**

**Next Chapter-Super hero therapy group?**

**Author's note: Whoo.**


	7. Fallout

**Author's Note: Our basketball team gets a bloody rematch after we won? That's stupid. Piss me off. Anyway, total disclaimer, the Avengers and FF? So not mine. It's Marvel's.**

**Madripoor Rose: I try my best. Thanks. **

**Doza: Thank you. **

**Anhayla: Thank you. I'm pretty big on plot twists but I doubt I'll be throwing a curve ball here. I always keep my stories on at ten chapters, so there's still some time for more stuff to develop.**

**Previously on…a normal day gets cracked wide open when Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, attacks headmistress EMMA FROST in broad daylight. And even though there were no permanent injuries, it did leave both the faculty, and the student body rattled, as the possibility of an aggressor within the institute arises. It doesn't take long for the senior team to conclude that the attack was telepathic in nature, and targets people through an empathic, or emotional connection. With the toll of the days events getting to her, KITTY PRYDE tries to spend her early hours of rest training instead, an idea that didn't go to well, as the psionic entity that corrupted Marvel Girl possessed her as well, making her lash out at her teammate COLOSSUS, nearly killing him. Meanwhile, a band of mutants, led by the psionic TELEPLEX and the sadistic BILE, begin an assault on the people of New York. The X-MEN are called by S.H.I.E.L.D. because they're the only team readily available, and the X-Men answered the call, confronting Teleplex's team and preventing them from doing further damage. The fight didn't go well for the X-Men however, and the timely arrival of both the AVENGERS and the FANTASTIC FOUR managed to save them from complete defeat under the SILVER THORN…**

**Chapter 7: "Fallout"**

"Is she-" Scott got back to his feet, clutching his sore side.

"She's alive." Emma chided, knowing full well what Scott was about to ask. "Though my ability to control myself is inching slowly into oblivion as we speak." She noted, glaring at the unconscious mutant who gave her a concussion.

"That's good." Interrupted a woman in a skin-tight, leather suit. "…because you'll be handing her over to us now." She then ordered. The fact that she was beautiful remained secondary to the fact that she was armed like a one woman armada. She had short, black hair that went to show she wasn't the type of woman who treasured style over substance. "Director Hill." Scott greeted, though not with a voice reserved for someone who he thought well off.

"Hand her over, X-Men. We'll take care of her." She ordered again, as the S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercrafts began letting down more and more personnel, some of them to help with the clean-up, while others were there to simply intimidate. The five fully armored men standing behind the director were representatives of the latter.

"…Emma." Scott turned to his lover, who was still staring intently at her captive.

"…Alright. You can have her." She then relented, throwing the unconscious woman to the director's feet. "We have what we want." Emma remarked with a smirk.

"You did a good job here, X-Men. It could have gone better mind you, but…"

"Mind nothing." Emma interrupted, walking up to the S.H.I.E.L.D. director without any sign of intimidation. "You will graciously ask us to step down from this case now that these 'new' Avengers are here. And we, will unfortunately decline, seeing as this is a mutant problem, and that I owe them a whole lot of suffering."

"Miss Frost. I do hope you realize that we have machinery protecting us from mind control." The director retorted, placing her hands on her waist.

"And I do hope you realize, Miss Hill, that your psi-scrambler can only protect you from mind control. Not anything else." Emma rebutted. "Care for me to give you a demonstration? Who wants to have their brains fried" she asked, eyeing the men behind the director, who all took a few steps back at the sight of the former White Queen's harsh eyes.

"…Very well." The director responded. "We are working with these Avengers on a much, more important case anyway." She then added, much like a twelve year old would in order to win a shallow argument.

"I'm sure you'll be needing our help soon. The Sentry is quite the enigma, isn't he?" Emma asked, raising her eyebrow.

"…I don't know what you're talking about." The director remarked, thought it didn't take a telepath to know that she wasn't telling the truth.

"Of course you don't. Just remember, I have an Avenger in my team too." Emma then declared, referring to Logan, who seemed to have the ability to be everywhere at once.

"…Well, Miss Frost, I'd love to stay and chat, but the truth is, that would be a lie." Hill responded, signaling for her men to turn on back. "We'll be having that talk soon, Mr. Summers!" she then reminded the mutant leader, who was standing behind Emma.

"…Talk?" Emma turned and gave Scott an inquisitive look.

**Rose Garden/11:00**

"…" Derrick stood silent as he gazed at the framed picture of Sophie, wreathed by white roses.

"Hey." Greeted Mark as he stepped into the garden. "What'choo doing?" he asked, standing beside his best friend.

"…Just thinking." He responded. "She died doing what's right." he then said. "How many people go out that way?"

"…" Mark scratched the back of his head. "What's with the big, deep thoughts?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Everyone can be a hero, you know."

"What if you were born not to be?"

"Well…then you'd be a pussy if you didn't do anything about it, right? You could be born blind, doesn't mean you can't learn to see the world around you."

"…" Derrick nodded his head, still seemingly planets away.

"You know, remember in day one, I asked you where you were from?"

"Yeah?"

"Indiana, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"You sure?"

"Uh…yeah, I'm pretty sure I know where I came from."

"There's no listing of a Gallis anywhere in Indiana."

"…My parents moved out a little after I started here."

"Oh. Okay. Where'd they go?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"I'm just curious."

"…No, really."

"…Just curious, man."

"…"

"You want to go grab lunch?"

"Uh, not in the mood."

"Okay. Sure. See you in Lit."

**New York**** Streets/11:03**

Kitty was sitting on a mailbox that was lying on the middle of the wrecked street, with Henry standing behind her, and Susan Storm kneeling in front of her. "This won't hurt." Susan reassured Kitty as she closed her eyes, concentrating at the matter on hand. "Really, I'm fine." Kitty tried persuading, but none of the other heroes would have any of it. "I mean, we've got a healer at home." She then said, as she began to feel the Invisible Woman's force fields coming in contact with her skin.

"Healer can't take those bullets out of you. Besides, we can't have you bleed to death in the jet, vacuuming in there is a bastard." Henry reminded, as he held on Kitty to support the young mutant. "Your care for me is simply sublime." Kitty responded.

"Well, healer'll just let the wound close around it, which we don't want. Besides, I've got first dibs on the healer." Henry explained, still nauseous at all his singed fur.

"No fair. At least you have a healing factor." Kitty pouted.

"Who doesn't?"

"Here I go." Susan cautioned, as she used her power to form an invisible pair of clamps. "Take a deep breath…" Henry advised, as he watched Kitty begin to grimace as Susan worked to take out the bullet lodged in her shoulder.

"Feels funny. Where's Peter?" Kitty then asked, her eyes clamping shut as a reaction to the invisible force fields.

"Tony is helping him down." Henry responded, referring to Iron Man, who flew to the building that Peter got hurled into.

"Is he okay?" she then asked, as she suddenly and inexplicably lost the feeling of discomfort.

"It takes a lot more than getting catapulted two blocks away to put our good man down." Henry noted, his feline eyes landing on Emma, who was intently looking in Kitty's direction.

"It's out!" Susan yelled, as she finally got to pull the bullet from her shoulder, catching it with her hand. "Told you it wouldn't hurt. Want to keep it?" she asked, handing Kitty the bullet.

"Sure thing." She responded, nearly out of breath. "I'm getting someone to stitch you up. You've lost a lot of blood." Susan then remarked, as she stood and took her leave. "Thanks!" Kitty shouted, to which the fantastic adventurer waved back in response.

"She's swell." Kitty noted, rubbing her still, painless shoulder. "Why can't Emma be like her? On a side note, why can't Emma be like a human being? She looks just like one…" she asked rhetorically.

"Emma's…it's a breeding thing." Hank responded.

"Oh well. Hey, maybe we can do a get-together thing with the Fantastic Four soon."

"Sounds good. Had the pleasure of fighting alongside Susan a couple of times. Reed's lucky to have her." Henry responded, giving room for the S.H.I.E.L.D. medic to tend on Kitty's wound.

"Hank has a crush." Kitty teased, smiling at the young medic who gave her a goofy grin. "This may sting." The medic noted, as he took a thin, silver thread from his field kit.

"Gay now, remember?" Henry reminded. "Go ahead." Henry then insisted to the medic. "She doesn't feel any pain." He explained. It took a few more seconds for Kitty to realize why.

**Campus Grounds/11:05**

"…" Mark sighed out loud as he stepped out of the Rose Garden, with the three Cuckoos waiting for him by the bench area. All their eyes were lit, signaling that their powers were still in use.

"What did you gals see?" Mark asked, as he reached where they were sitting.

"…it was difficult." They responded in unison, their eyes soon losing their glamour. "…which is odd in itself." They then noted.

"Odd? Why?"

"How many students keep their heads booby trapped?"

"…What?" Mark turned to look at the rose garden, through the grass arched entry, finding Derrick still staring at the portrait of the Cuckoos' fallen sister. "What do you mean, booby-trapped?" he then asked, his keeping his voice barely above a whisper. All three sisters stared at each other, and then stood up. "We should talk someplace farther." Phoebe declared, as they began to make their way to the tennis court.

"…But he's not a telepath." Mark argued, as he followed the three sisters.

"When you were talking to him, we tried searching for what the words he spoke meant, just like you asked us to…" Mindee began. "…but each time we got a glimpse of the history behind what he says, a massive wall blocks our way." Celeste continued. "And if when we tried to drill our way through, we saw a recipe for Alzheimer's ready to pounce on us." Phoebe finished.

"How…he's not a telepath! He's not supposed to be able to do stuff like that…"

"Maybe someone did it for him." Celeste suggested.

"Do you think it could be a mental block? Like what we read earlier?" Mindee asked.

"…If it is, then all we get is that he's a much more powerful… fire guy than he really is. Doesn't mean that he's also a powerful telepath who can make the faculty go crazy."

"A lot of mutants have auxiliary abilities that seem completely different from their primary ones." Celeste explained.

"Which means that the possibility of him being a telepath and a pyrokinetic is not too far from reality. It's been done before after all." Phoebe then reminded.

"But…sorting hat! You guys would know if he had telepathy, right?" Mark asked.

"…We can find out."

**New York**** Streets/11:07**

Logan held on to his jaw, waiting for the muscles to grow back, as his senses picked up the presence of another superhero, crawling down a wall. "I'm not in the mood." He snarled, even before the red and blue-clad hero could get a syllable out. Mainly because Logan knew that once he started talking, it would take a coma to stop him. "What happened to your face?" Spider-Man finally asked, ignoring Logan's warning of intolerance. "Whatever it is, it's going to happen to you unless you leave me alone!" Logan threatened, clearly not kidding, as he revealed his mutilated visage.

"…"

"…"

"Dude, you've got something on your face."

"That's it, I'm sticking my claws up your ass."

"Eeew! Why'd you wanna do that?" Spider-Man asked, as he began to use his webbing to help clear the streets of debris.

"I'm a bit pissed right now, you moron!" Logan snapped, sitting himself back down on the sidewalk.

"Well, yeah, I mean, if someone blew my face off, I'd be in a pretty foul mood too…actually no, I'd be very, very dead. But you've got healing powers. You shouldn't let something like, uh, your eyes and nose and…other stuff not being there anymore, get to you, you know what I mean?"

"Rarely if ever."

"The wife says 'hi' by the way." Spider-Man commented, as he swung to the opposite building. "Says you ought'a come over for dinner." He then noted, as he fired his webbing on the side of an upturned car, hoisting it up back to how it should be. "MJ is preparing this paella dish, the one you really liked when you dropped by once?"

"When?" Logan asked, refusing help from a S.H.I.E.L.D. medic who offered to help him with some bandages.

"You remember, when Aunt May moved to Stark Towers and…"

"I meant, 'when is the dinner', webhead."

"Oh. Well, not sure. This Saturday, maybe? Just be sure to…you know, maybe wear a hat and sunglasses. The whole seeing what your skull looks like may ruin MJ's appetite."

"I'll be getting my face back by evening." Logan responded, beginning to lighten up.

"You sure? Because I could reschedule if you want…"

"Ha. Nah. Now I actually get something to look forward to."

"So you're not Mr. sourpuss anymore?"

"Getting there. Now quit talking to me, the more my lips move the less time it takes for the muscles to heal."

"Aye, aye ,captain." Spider-Man responded, saluting to Logan as he swung to another building. "Hello Captain!" he then greeted as he landed where Captain America was.

**Tennis Courts/11:09**

"I think we should tell a teacher." Phoebe suggested, as they sat on a bench overlooking the aerial athletics, as two flying mutants decided to spice up their tennis match. Not that it wasn't done before. Mark sat on the armrest, with the three sisters taking up the seats.

"Little too early for that, don't you think?" Mark asked, still unsure of what he was supposed to do. "I don't know about you, but we're not too keen on waiting for another super criminal to ruin a school event." All three of them responded, their eyes lighting up in an angry glare.

"Oh, sorry." Mark responded, realizing that their anger came from the fact that they lost a sister in stopping a maniacal student.

"…At any rate, it's your duty as his best friend to act in what you should believe to be in his best interest." Celeste counseled, their eyes returning to normal.

"…and what you should be thinking is that there has to be a reason why he's got a mind tighter than Fort Knox." Phoebe added.

"Thing is…what if what's stopping him is really… what if he actually needs to be stopped from being something?" Mark asked.

"Like what?' questioned Mindee as she leaned forward.

"…he said something about, what you need to be, to be a hero. He asked me… what if he was born… to not be a hero."

"If anything, it just means there's more reason to worry." Phoebe responded. Mark took a deep breath, and stared at the distance, past the two mutants playing aerial tennis.

"…Just, give it more time. Let's be sure about what we're doing."

"We can take it into our own hands."

"No. No, you said he had some weird crap swimming around his brain. Can't let anything happen to you three."

"…" Mindee blushed and stepped behind one of her sisters so Mark wouldn't notice.

**Stark Tower/11:10**

Iron Man let his boosters die down to decelerate as he approached a large whole in the middle of a skyscraper, one that incidentally, he owned. "Colossus?" he called, as he entered through the hole. It was a library, which quickly emptied when a large mutant found himself jettisoned inside. "I'm here." The steel mutant responded, as Iron Man found him sitting down, leaning against the far wall. Two security guards stood over him, their hands on their pistols. "Gentlemen!" Iron Man called. "I'll be escorting Mr. Rasputin here." He immediately declared, helping the steel mutant get back to his feet.

"But sir…" one of the guards came up to the Avenger. "We…he…"

"Is it against the law to get thrown across New York and into a building against your will?" Iron Man asked, putting the Colossus' arm over his shoulder to help him walk.

"…No sir."

"Then that settles it."

"How goes the battle?" Colossus immediately asked.

"Baddies fled. Your team's just fine, scratches here and there…Logan's face is missing…" Iron Man answered, his voice now much more tender than it was seconds ago. "Come on, I'll carry you out."

"Thank you, but I may be a little too heavy." Colossus responded, his voice still weak.

"Then turn back to your normal state."

"…My skin is melted. I'm sure that becoming organic right now would do me much worse. I'll need to see the healer at the school first." Colossus reasoned.

"Well, I've still got enough batteries to lift you up…and you're not going to fit in the elevators anyway."

"…Very well. Thank you."

"So, I heard you got to visit the great beyond. How was it?"

"I…in all honesty, I am not certain if I truly died at all."

"That must suck." The Iron Man commented as he helped Colossus to his feet, putting the steel mutant's arm over his shoulder in support.

"Yes. Yes it does, suck." He responded, limping along as Iron Man led him to the hole where he initially crashed through. "…This is your property, yes?" he then asked, his eyes trailing over the plaster scattered across the room.

"Yep. Nifty place, huh?"

"I am sorry for the hole."

"Nah, don't worry about it. Good thing about being a millionaire? You don't care as much as you need to."

"Ah. Words to live by." Both men stopped as they reached the broken wall, staring down at the hundred or so stories that separated them from the ground. "…Thousands of people, living their lives." Colossus muttered, as he watched the people below. "I wonder what they think of."

"…People down there?" Iron Man turned his boosters on, and jumped ahead of Colossus, hovering in front of him for a few seconds. "Jump, I'll grab your hands." He instructed. It only took a second before the steel mutant complied, as he leapt off the hole, extending his hands to the air so Iron Man can catch them.

"People down there…oof!" Iron Man continued, as he held onto the Colossus' hands. "Probably wondering how to get through the day." He said, as he flew to where their two teams were.

"…Just like us." Colossus commented.

"Just like us."

**Brooklyn, New York/14:48**

"That didn't go as well as we planned." Teleplex muttered, taking a drink from a bottle of Evian. They found themselves, rather comfortably, in an incredibly lush, two bed-room condominium, with quite the view of a famous bridge.

"All things considered, I think we did much better than we expected." Bile argued, though keeping it in a lighthearted manner.

"We lost Tremolo." Teleplex quickly pointed out, sitting himself on the sofa.

"You think she'll talk?" Coil asked, descending the stair to the second level of the residence.

"She doesn't know about this place, so it wouldn't really matter." Teleplex responded, putting his feet up on the coffee table. "Which reminds me…" Mist Mistress interrupted, taking a seat beside Teleplex. "…how exactly did you find this place?"

"This was my…previous employer's." Teleplex responded, stifling a chuckle behind a mouth full of mineral water.

"They seem very, very well-off." Mist Mistress replied, her eyes wandering around the two-floor unit. There was no ceiling that divided the first and second stages, with the bath, dining and living rooms on the former, and the bedrooms on the latter.

"Well, they were." Teleplex responded, with the Mistress taking immediate note of the used tense.

"Until I gave them a rapid dose of Ebola." Bile chided, a look of pride gleaming on his face.

"…Former employer's, huh? That the reason why you set all of this up?" Manacle asked, emerging from the dining room.

"Yes. Like all of you, I underwent the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s rehabilitation program…to…aid in the restraint of me using my psionic abilities."

"You mean G.O.N.E." Coil chided, leaning on the leather chair. "Gene operational neutralization operative. They stuffed me in a Circus." She remarked with a bitter tone.

"And they kept me in an office." Teleplex followed. "Until one night, I walked into my employer having a late night…'discussion' with the secretary. Of course I told him that I would keep it a secret, seeing as he had a very, very unstable wife at home. But he thought I was going to take the situation for granted. Try and use it to get a better position, more money…"

"Did you?" Mist Mistress asked.

"No. But that didn't stop him from announcing a company lay-off. And surprise, surprise, my name was on the list."

"Then you should have busted his balls for it!" Coil interrupted.

"More than a hundred very disgruntled employees got laid-off. Who would listen to the unsubstantiated complaints of one of them?" Teleplex asked, answering Coil's question. "I've been playing nice all my life, and it never got me anywhere. With this, at least I get to have a little fun before I die."

"If you want fun, then maybe you'd like to actually step in the field with us." Manacle chided. "Getting punched through a building isn't exactly going 'tralala' through a park."

"It's not the fighting that gets me going, Manacle." Teleplex replied.

"It's the ordering us around." Bile declared, entering the living room with a bottle of champagne. "Teleplex here gets off on being the boss." He explained, sitting on the chair that Coil was leaning on.

"Bossy huh?" Mist Mistress gave him a smile. "I like that."

"What about you?' Coil asked Bile. "Is there anything other than, 'make stuff go boom' in your agenda?"

"Well, I'd like to say there is, sweetheart, but if I do, then I'd just be kidding myself. I don't have any misconceptions on what I'm supposed to be. I'm a walking virus. Means that if there's a God up there, then he seems to have a pretty clear idea of what I should do with myself."

"…And that is?"

"Pure and simple. To become the very antithesis of life."

**Uni-Mind/15:01**

The X-Men had their War Room, while the other telepaths had their own telepathic destinations when they wanted to discuss private matters. For the Stepford Cuckoos, it was in the confines of their vastly capable uni-mind.

"What do we do?" Mindee asked, sitting in the middle of a floating bed with his two sisters.

"I say we tell Miss Frost." Celeste suggested, psionically manifesting a pillow to hug.

"But before we do that, I say you get that picture of Mark out of our heads." Phoebe added, pointing at a floating memory of Mark playing basketball.

"What? It's nice to look at." Mindee defended, pouting her lips. 'You can see his muscles ripple." She then said, enhancing the image.

"Yes, and thanks to you we've been doing nothing but think of him and his perfect physique for the last two weeks!" Celeste responded.

"Well, I can't help it!" Mindee shouted back, though not out of agitation of any sort.

"Then do help it! We can't sleep when you keep thinking off whether or not to mind control him into asking you to a date." Phoebe pointed, manifesting a small pillow to throw at her sister.

"Okay, okay, stop it already! Let's…let's just get back to business, shall we?" Mindee asked, raising her hands in surrender, as a massive, white blinds began to cover the images of Mark.

"…So, are we sure we really want to go ahead and tell the teachers about Derrick?" Mindee then asked, her eyes shifting between her two sisters.

"Well, we may not have any evidence that it's him causing the Hitchcock phenomena other than your boyfriend's paranoia…" Celeste started.

"He's not my boyfriend." Mindee objected.

"…but we all do agree that it is very intriguing to find a non-telepath with a booby-trapped head." Phoebe finished. "And someone with that kind of potential… danger… is something that the teachers should know about." Celeste added.

"But remember what Mark said…" Mindee declared, raising her hand. "What if Derrick really just wants to forget something? What if that psychic lock is supposed to be there?"

"A threat of imminent danger?" Celeste asked. "When has that ever stopped us?"

**Chapter 7, End**

**Next Chapter – So the drama**

**Author's note: Hope you enjoyed, comments, suggestions, violent reactions? Review:)**


	8. Swallow

**Author's Note: It's the third to the last chapter, whoo! **

**Doza: Thanks. I think Scarlet Johansson is hotter than Alba though, I mean the first frame of Lost in Translation? Damn. Best. Shot. Ever.But still, with Alba,odds are I'm watching Into the Blue for all the wrong reasons. But my number one babe for all time is still definitely Kiera Knightley. Damn she is fine. Anyway, Hank's straight, but he pretended to be gay to piss his ex off after she broke up with him because thepaper ran their relationship as a case of bestiality. Also, side note, they revived the Angel franchise through a new series of comic books. Heard of it? They say it picks up after "Not Fade Away". Anyway, canceling that show? Bloody stupid. **

**Anhayla: Thanks, Bendis' run on New Avengers and the House of M made the X-Men and the Avengers fight side by side on numerous occasions, so it only seemed natural that they act like allies here. And the Kitty not feeling any pain wasn't for any ominous reason. There's a hint of someone using her power to anesthetize Kitty while she underwent the emergency prep. And I promised I wouldn't highlight Kitty and Peter's relationship, but that only meant I'd be giving the other team members (except Logan, I'm sick of seeing him on every comic book marvel churns out) equal share in the spotlight. Didn't mean that I won't be writing about them. Besides, misleading as I am, I do enjoy their relationship. **

**Madripoor Rose: Yeah, it took me like half an hour just to think about something Peter would say that cold resonate. I edited that part like, I don't know how many times, but in my first draft, they were supposed to take the elevator (because God knows superheroes taking public facilities are supposed to be funny) Turned out that their scene played out too long and way too forced, so I just decided to cut it. There's actually a mistake there, because when Peter jumped, he was facing Tony, which meant he would be facing backward while Tony faced forward in flight, making for a very awkward image. **

**Previously on…a normal day gets cracked wide open when Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, attacks headmistress EMMA FROST in broad daylight. And even though there were no permanent injuries, it did leave both the faculty, and the student body rattled, as the possibility of an aggressor within the institute arises. It doesn't take long for the senior team to conclude that the attack was telepathic in nature, and targets people through an empathic, or emotional connection. With the toll of the days events getting to her, KITTY PRYDE tries to spend her early hours of rest training instead, an idea that didn't go to well, as the psionic entity that corrupted Marvel Girl possessed her as well, making her lash out at her teammate COLOSSUS, nearly killing him. Meanwhile, a band of mutants, led by the psionic TELEPLEX and the sadistic BILE, begin an assault on the people of New York. The X-MEN are called by S.H.I.E.L.D. because they're the only team readily available, and the X-Men answered the call, confronting Teleplex's team and preventing them from doing further damage. The fight didn't go well for the X-Men however, and the timely arrival of both the AVENGERS and the FANTASTIC FOUR managed to save them from complete defeat under the SILVER THORN…**

**Chapter 8: "Swallow"**

"So, it's settled." Bile declared, taking one, heart swig from a bottle of champagne.

"We'll better get packing if we want to kill them, and be back by seven. I don't want to miss Rockstar INXS." The Mist Mistress suggested, her head now leaning on Teleplex's shoulder.

"…I'm pretty sure that by the end of the day, we'll have S.H.I.E.L.D. ready and waiting for us with a gift shop full of violence." Teleplex muttered, taking a drink from a bottle of wine.

"What? Wait, I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. is practically crippled right now?" Coil asked, sitting on the floor.

"Yeah. Means they can't take us head-on. Doesn't mean that they can't rig this entire floor to blow up by the time we finish what we'll do." Explained their leader.

"So you're saying that this is a one-way trip?' manacle asked, leaning against the doorway.

"It could be. Unless any of you all want to live the remainder of your lives running away from a world that persecutes us for being who we are." Teleplex replied.

"I say when we go out; we make the world take notice." Bile remarked, raising his bottle.

"…Do onto others…" Coil muttered, raising her glass. Manacle raised his bottle after her.

"So, double M, are you in?" Teleplex asked, nearing his glass of wine to hers.

"…" The Mist Mistress smiled as she took her own glass and raised it against Teleplex's. "Let's get going then." She declared, taking a deep breath, and drinking the entire glass.

**BlackBird/16:00**

"We should send Tony some flowers." Emma commented as she stared out the windshield of the Blackbird. "Why so? Henry asked, co-piloting the jet with Scott.

"Well, without his skyscraper, we wouldn't have any place to park this thing when we're on call." Emma explained. "There's still the Baxter Building." Logan noted, his face having grown much of what was blown away by Bile's shotgun blast.

"Anyway, we still have a bunch of mutants to track down." Scott reminded.

"Which you're quick to point out on account that it's my job to do so." Emma retorted, watching a sly smile find its way on her lover's face.

"Maybe we can just have the Cuckoos do it." Henry suggested. "I mean, we couldn't have stopped Jean without their back-up."

"No. I only allowed them to use Cerebra back then because the world was at stake. This is something I'd rather do on my own." Emma responded.

"They've proven themselves capable more than once…" Henry retorted.

"Sophie died in that machine."

"…"

"I will not allow them in that machine, in that chamber, unless we have absolutely no choice."

"…Okay." Scott turned and looked at Emma, who sat behind Hank. "We get home, we get some rest, then Emma'll use Cerebra to find our band of geriatrics."

"I'll be at the bar, then. Call me when we're ready to get our asses handed to us again." Logan remarked, scratching the area that was once his brow.

"Do we have a bar?" Henry asked, prompting Logan to snicker.

"Logan, if any of the kids turn up drunk…" Scott threatened, not bothering to look back to the last row where Logan was. "Don't worry. Only me and Emma know about it anyway."

"Emma?" Scott turned and found a grin on Emma's face. "Oh be glad with it. At least I'm secretly seeing a fridge, not someone else." She contested, with Logan chuckling behind her.

"…Are we sure Peter's still up there?" Kitty asked, changing the subject. Her arm was in a sling.

"We're still moving at a relatively slow speed, so I'm pretty sure he's still up there." Scott replied.

"I could patch you into him, Kitty." Emma suggested. "So you can have a nice chat with our windsurfer."

"…" Logan turned to Kitty, who looked like she was unsure of whether to accept Emma's offer or not. And as Kitty struggled for a course of action, everyone began to shift in their seats, an awkward silence setting in.

"…You should talk to him, Kitty." Henry commented, breaking the discomfort. "You're the only one he remotely talks to anyway." Logan added.

"Well, okay, sure…patch me in, or something." Kitty flustered, looking much more uncomfortable than she was earlier on. "Try not to rock his world; there aren't any seatbelts up there." Emma reminded, as Kitty began to feel lightheaded, as if everything started to disconnect from where her body was.

_"I have been humiliated." _Colossus thought as he rode the top of the Blackbird, recalling the fight that did not go as well as he recalled the fight earlier on that did not go as well as anyone would have wished. His metallic skin hung in melted layers, that only seemed to grow larger the longer one would stare at them.

_"…Peter?" _came a soft, feminine voice, drifting into his consciousness like an echo that went the opposite direction. It was a voice that he did not need to think about to recognize. _"Kitty." _

_"…Uh, so hey. How are you up there?" _she asked, wondering if she could get a chance to find out what Peter was really thinking, right from his mind.

_"I am…recuperating." _The steel mutant responded.

_"Okay…so, uh…how do you feel?" _she then asked, hoping she could get a glimpse of Peter's thoughts on what her question truly entailed.

_"…Tired." _Came a monotonous response.

_"Oh…well…maybe you should come in here, get a proper seat." _Kitty offered, trying to hide her disappointment.

_"We are in flight, Katya. There is no door to the cockpit from here."_ Colossus replied.

_"Are you okay up there?"_

_"I'm fine. Thank you." _

_"…But you've been hurt." _

_"I told you, Katya, I am fine. There is no need for you to worry." _

_"Well maybe if you didn't enjoy playing lone ranger all the time, we wouldn't have to worry about you falling of the damn plane!" _Kitty snapped, finally becoming frustrated that she couldn't find any trace of emotion in Peter's voice.

"You have to give him time, dear." Emma interrupted, as Kitty found herself back in her seat.

"Wait, you were listening?" Kitty asked, clearly still hostile.

"Maybe Peter is feeling crowded." Emma suggested.

"You were listening?" Kitty asked again her voice becoming much more shrill.

"I was the one patching you in, remember? And try as I might, you're thoughts are much to loud to ignore." Emma answered, still looking out the window.

"You didn't tell me that you could listen to what I was thinking!" Kitty snapped back.

"Oh? Well I'm sorry for presuming that you had half a brai-"

"We're here!" Logan interrupted, as they finally began to hover over school grounds.

"Oh, thank God." Henry muttered.

**Men's Dormitories/16:27**

"Okay." Mark announced as he unlocked the door to the room that he shared with Derrick. "Welcome to my room." He then said, as he pushed the door open and allowed the Stepfords to enter.

"What's that smell?" Celeste asked, as she started to walk around.

"Laundry. Just don't open that closet, or you'll want to mind wipe the smell from your systems." Mark casually replied, closing the door and taking a seat on his bed.

_"You do what he says or I'm kicking you out of the uni-mind." _Phoebe telepathically told her sister, Mindee.

_"I'm just curious." _Mindee retorted as she walked over to a cabinet.

_"You just want to see what his underwear looks like!" _Phoebe chided, taking a small, framed picture of Derrick and his mother, standing on the bedside desk.

"I hope you ladies aren't talking about something I should be hearing." Mark interrupted, eyeing each one of them suspiciously. Mindee quickly furrowed her browns and shook her head, pretty much making everything obvious.

"This is…" Phoebe handed the framed picture to Celeste.

"Find something?" Mark asked, standing up. Celeste narrowed her eyes and focused on the framed photograph. "It's not real." She muttered, her eyes lighting up with psychic energy.

"Not…huh?" Mark took a closer look at the photograph.

"It's a burn." Phoebe declared. "A psychic image forced into reality. At least this one doesn't have any booby traps." She then explained, as she glanced at Mindee, who in turn joined them to become the three-in-one.

"…What do you see?" he asked, taking a step away from the girls to give them some space to work.

"It's all a lie. It's…" the three girls concentrated, as they mentally peeled off layers upon layers of the framed photograph in Celeste's hands. "There. He left a fragment of the past when he created this image. He…there's a memory…columns and forests and volcanoes..."

"…What? What is it?"

"…It's a place called Nova Roma."

**Women's Lockers/16:30**

"…" Kitty rubbed her temples with her free hand as she sat on the bench in front of the lockers. With Emma already keen on who they were facing, all she needed was a minute in Cerebra to track each of them down and neutralize all of them from there. It meant that the rest of the X-Men had nothing else to do for the rest of the day.

"Katya?" interrupted a distinct, male voice, the voice of the only person who called her that name.

"Hey." She greeted, as she turned to find Peter, still in his costume, standing by the doorway.

"You're fine now." She muttered, as she found the older man back in his organic form, with only mild red marks to commemorate the massive burns that he got earlier on.

"Healer wanted to know where you were. I told him you got shot." Peter remarked, stepping into the room.

"Oh. Just like that." Kitty whispered to herself.

"I'm sorry?" Peter stepped closer, unable to hear what she muttered to herself.

"No, nothing, listen, I'm sorry for snapping at you back there." Kitty remarked. "I've just been really…uppity lately. Stress and all, but I am so back in track. You know…with the not being snappy."

"…It's not a problem. You really should see the healer. Get that sling off your arm."

"…Yeah, yeah I will. I just…need some time."

"Why? What's the problem?' he asked, still keeping his distance.

"Nothing." She responded, leaning her chin on her hand. _"Get a clue! This bench isn't just for one person you big lug!" _she thought, as her eyes trailed over the distance between them.

"Oh. Well then, I'll check up on Scott, see if there's anything needs to be done." Peter declared, as he began to turn for the door.

"Uh, Peter!" Kitty called, causing him to turn back. _"What do I say? What do I say? What do I say?" _

"…Katya?"

"…Nothing."

"…"

"Yeah, you'd better see if Scott needs anything."

"…I will. Take care of yourself."

**Headmaster's Office/16:34**

"Why do you and Kitty fight all the time, anyway?" Scott asked, leaning on his desk. He finished buttoning his gray shirt, and then proceeded to fix his collar.

"Funny story, I kidnapped her friends, your teammates, and tried to murder them all. You'd think she would have gotten over it by now." Emma responded, a little too weary to be discussing things. Like Kitty, she was still in her white costume.

"Well, you're not making it particularly easy for her to forgive you. You two bicker like-"

"If I hear the world 'old' come from your mouth, I promise I'll tie your brain to a toilet in a foster home."

"Emma, I'm serious."

"…" Emma took a deep breath and drew closer to her lover, tenderly placing her arms on his waist. "So am I. Now, you said we should relax before I go mind hunting…" she seductively purred into his ear, tracing her hand over his chest. "I do believe I have a good idea of some…way to relieve myself…"

_"Miss Frost?" _came a sudden, telepathic intrusion. _"We are ever so sorry to interrupt. But if you needed to know, Mr. Summers isn't in the mood right now, anyway." _

"Someone there?" Scott asked, as he noticed Emma turn her head to the direction of the door.

"Excuse me for a moment Scott, darling, but my girls, at the risk of a lethal amount of detention… are alarming me to the possibility of an emerging first order mutant inside the campus." Emma explained, as she stepped away from her lover.

"What?"

"…They're telling me to look into a student's mind."

"Wait, is this the student who's making us all suddenly go crazy?"

"They say they don't know. They just…oh…oh my."

"Emma, what is it?"

"Scott…be a dear and have Henry prep the X-lab. I need to have a talk with one Derrick Gallis, immediately."

**Literature Class, End/16:40 **

The bell rang. A steady stream of students started leaving the classroom, Derrick and Mark among them. "So…post-colonial sexual politics, huh? What's up with that?" Mark asked, trying to start a casual conversation. Amazing how difficult something so easy could become. It was the price of knowledge. "…"

"Yo, Derr." Mark called again, tapping his best friend on the shoulder. "You there, man?" he asked, unable to keep the concern in his voice hidden.

"Huh?"

"Dude, you've been zoning out a lot recently." Mark exclaimed as they began to walk to their next class.

"I have?"

"Yes. You have. A lot."

"Cool." Derrick absent-mindedly responded.

"No, it's not cool. It's…" Mark stopped, trying to find the words. Unlike almost every other student on campus, he wasn't one who was good with the drama.

"Uh, hey, I'm, I'm sorry if I've been out of it for the past few days. I'm…I'm just stressed is all." He explained, feeling a sudden surge of guilt as he saw a look of complete worry in Mark's face.

"…" Mark scratched the back of his head, something that became a habit whenever something was unsettling him. _"he really cares…" _Derrick thought as he let out a loud sigh. _"…stop it Derrick, Mark isn't like you." _He then scolded himself. _"…God, is it so wrong that I'm actually feeling good about how bad he feels for me?" _Derrick licked his lips, feeling the dryness settle in. _"I'm turning all of this into an excuse just for him to notice me more!"_ A couple of guys passed them by, waving at Mark as they did. _"What's the hells the matter with you, Derrick?" _he asked himself, as gave one of them a high five. _'You're freaking me out. It's like, you're hiding something… something dangerous." _The two friends turned a corner, finding themselves in another corridor lined with classrooms. _"…Why the hell doesn't he let me in? We've been best friends for years, Christ, it's not like I'll crucify him!" _Mark smiled at a girl who gave him a hearty wave.

_"Derrick Gallis?" _came a sudden, telepathic intrusion. Derrick stopped in his tracks, with Mark doing so as he noticed his best friend turn around."Miss Frost?"

"I'll need you to come with me." The buxom educator declared. "Now."

**X-Labs/16:00**

"So, you think this Gallis person had anything to do with our recent misfortunes?" Henry asked as he readied the neural neutralizer, a small dome-shaped apparatus connected to the top of a surgical chair.

"Not really." Scott responded. "But he was in Emma's ethics class when the first attack happened."

"Doesn't prove anything either way. We've been through late blooming mutants who have a myriad of abilities." Henry replied, just as the steel door slid open.

"…Am I in trouble?" Derrick asked as he stepped into the white room. Aside from the two teachers and a surgical chair hooked to a stand full of panels and monitors at the middle, the room was completely bare.

"It depends on what I find." Emma responded, stepping ahead of him. "I'll be needing sometime alone with young, Mr. Gallis, boys." She remarked, gesturing for the scared mutant to enter.

"Henry, be a dear and take his jacket for him?" she asked, pointing to the orange hued, denim one that he wore.

"Uh…no, I'm fine." Derrick politely protested as he shyly turned to face the blue-furred mutant.

"I meant for me. That color is hideous on you." Emma immediately corrected.

"Oh." Derrick watched nervously as Henry stepped towards him.

"There's nothing to be scared of, son." Scott declared as he made his way to the door. "Let's go, Hank." He then called.

"Don't worry, she doesn't bite." Henry noted as he took Derrick's jacket, and followed Scott out the door.

"You really shouldn't be hiding under so many clothes, you know?" Emma remarked, noticing that he was wearing a light blue, fitted sweater underneath what Henry already took.

"Uh…huh?"

"Shh, enough banter, come on and sit yourself down."

"…." Derrick bit his lower lip as he made his way to the chair. "Uh…whatever you find in my head…don't tell anyone, okay?" he pleaded, untying his shoes and then awkwardly positioning himself on the chair.

"What do you-oh. Oh. That's sweet. He doesn't know?" Emma asked, as she went to the head of the chair.

"He's…not into…he likes girls."

"Well, maybe he'll come around." She commented as she pulled down the neural neutralizer to fit on the top of the student's head. "This will help you get some sleep. I could do it myself, but if something goes wrong, then chances are it would be a little too strenuous to journey into your mind, and keep you sedated at the same time."

"Okay. So, what…what are you looking for?"

"Things."

"…Oh."

"Now, take a deep breath, and let's see what you've been hiding…"

**Campus Grounds/17:24**

Logan kept his arms over his head as he laid himself on the grass. Like the rest of the team, he was already back in his civilian outfit, finding it much more easier, mentally, to heal whenever they're not in brightly colored spandex. By that time, the students were already taking their last classes for the day, meaning most of the grounds were already cleared. Just the way Logan wanted. The afternoon sun was retiring early that day, as its golden streaks faded to an encroaching hue of orange and violet. A cold gust of wind blew his way, singing melodies of scents that he long knew. And some that he didn't. Soon enough, the smell of pine and lemon grass began to get overpowered by the stench of steel melting and wires burning. _"Someone's screwing with the security systems…" _came his first thought. "Blast it." He muttered to himself as he jumped to his feet, racing past the green acres of the Xavier estate.

_"Can't be hitting us back already…not this fast…" _he thought as he found himself on the main lawn of the institute, seeing a thick, layer of mist seeping into the hidden panels were the security measures were hidden. Logan unsheathed his claws. Even from there, he could hear an engine humming, mixed with the sweat of hunger and anticipation and hate so reckless. "They're back." He muttered to himself, as he watched a black F-150 Pick-up tearing through the road. "Team!" Logan shouted at the top of his lungs, just as the pick-up truck crashed through the front gates, headed straight his way.

**Chapter 8, End**

**Next Chapter – One more match! **

**Author's note: Carb-starve is killing me. Do review****J**


	9. Violation

**Author's Note: That took long, No, actually, it didn't. I had this thing finished since last month, but my schedule got so tight that I couldn't squeeze in the time to upload this. So anyway, without further ado, here it is, the penultimate chapter to my twisted little headgame. Enjoy!**

**Doza****: Here it is then:D **

**Anhayla1: Thanks. I really regret not having enough foresight to litter a lot more clues during the whole thing, but I hope that the twisty thingie won't disappoint. At least, in the next chapter, I hope it won't. Anyway, thanks, I put a hell of a lot of thought into the Derrick angle, that's why it turned out to be the main focus of the story after all. **

**Previously on…a normal day gets cracked wide open when Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, attacks headmistress EMMA FROST in broad daylight. And even though there were no permanent injuries, it did leave both the faculty, and the student body rattled, as the possibility of an aggressor within the institute arises. It doesn't take long for the senior team to conclude that the attack was telepathic in nature, and targets people through an empathic, or emotional connection. With the toll of the days events getting to her, KITTY PRYDE tries to spend her early hours of rest training instead, an idea that didn't go to well, as the psionic entity that corrupted Marvel Girl possessed her as well, making her lash out at her teammate COLOSSUS, nearly killing him. Meanwhile, a band of mutants, led by the psionic TELEPLEX and the sadistic BILE, begin an assault on the people of New York. The X-MEN are called by S.H.I.E.L.D. because they're the only team readily available, and the X-Men answered the call, confronting Teleplex's team and preventing them from doing further damage. The fight didn't go well for the X-Men however, and the timely arrival of both the AVENGERS and the FANTASTIC FOUR managed to save them from complete defeat under the SILVER THORN. After a moment's respite, the co-leader of the team, Emma, receives distressing news from her prize pupils, the telepathic STEPFORD CUCKOOS, and MARK VASQUEZ, about the possibility of a super criminal in the student body, in the form of a pyrokinetic named DERRICK GALLIS. And as she confronts the young student about his whereabouts, LOGAN rests outside, only to be disturbed by an out of control pick-up ready to crush him…**

**Chapter 9: "Violation"**

The Mist Mistress let out a maniacal laugh as she tore right into the Xavier Institute's front lawn, a look of murder dazzling in her mad eyes. Logan dove out of the pick-up's way as the driver swerved to the side, stopping in the middle of the sizable lawn. "Hey, dog man." Bile greeted as the dust began to settle. He stood on the back of the truck with a blanket covering something large beside him. "Hey, nut sack." The feral mutant shot back, as he charged at Bile.

"Never learn…" the old mutant muttered to himself as he took the blanket off of his toy, revealing a mounted M-60 fully automatic with enough firepower to stop an invading army. "Crud!" Logan stopped in his tracks, and made a dash to his left, just as Bile took the handles and began to spray at the feral mutant. Even at his top speed, Logan could still feel the bullets streak right by him like shards of yellow light. Three or four managed to catch the back of his flannel shirt, making him feel a\the vacuum as the force of the bullets tore it apart.

"Run, Lassie, run!" Bile taunted as he followed Logan make his way to the wall leading outside the campus grounds, obviously in an attempt to divert the gunfire from the school.

"He's headed your way." Teleplex reported, as he watched Logan jump onto the wall, ready to climb over it for cover. "Go for the goal." He then muttered, just while Logan felt the brick wall tremble and shatter, sending him flying back as the mutant Manacle crashed through with the force of a stampede. "Holy hell!" Logan yelled as he somersaulted backwards, landing on his feet, as the large mutant loomed over him.

"Hey." Manacle hissed, as he outstretched his arms, firing his psionic hook-chains at Logan.

"Missed us?" Coil asked, wrapping herself around Manacle's shoulders.

**Derrick's Mind/17:30**

"…Where are we?" Derrick asked, as he found himself in a white space, apparently standing on top of nothing but thin air. "Loitering in your diencephalons, darling." Emma responded, emerging from a tear in the white space. "…Where did you come from?" Derrick asked, tilting to see what was through the portal.

"Here and there. I move in mysterious ways." Emma responded, as she began to look around.

"Oh my God, were you just in my fantasies?" the young man shouted, as glimpses of his carnal desires began to fade along with the tear sewing itself shut.

"Well, I wasn't." she responded, putting emphasis on the personal pronoun. "…Desire makes us move the way we do." Emma explained. "I was just checking if you had a desire that could bring about a negative emotion."

"What? Wha-did you find anything?"

"No. But if you want to marry, then I suggest you move to California. They're much more open to that kind of thing. First to approve a bill and all."

"…Uh…can we get out of my brain now? It's becoming really uncomfortable."

"Hm? Oh no, I've 'heard' Northstar's thoughts once. The things he wanted to do to Bobby, really…rest his soul." Emma muttered, as she reached out and grabbed a portion of the white space, and began to rip it open.

"…But, didn't Miss Pryde announce that he was still alive? That he was under rehab?" Derrick asked, as he hurried after the liberal educator.

"Oh, right. Do believe that."

**Front Lawn/17:31**

Logan cried out loudly as he felt a dozen hooks wrap and tear into his flesh, literally binding him in pain. With the feral mutant preoccupied, Bile turned his attention back to the front doors of the main building, as the three other male members of the team poured themselves to the lawn. "Bile!" Scott called, as he slowed down to a walk, with both Peter and Henry standing behind him in defensive postures. A loud grunt turned all of their attentions to Logan, as he found himself getting pinned on the ground by Manacle's psionics. "…hey, this is comically funny and all, but can you guys help me up now?" he asked, tilting his head up to catch a glimpse of his teammates.

"…As I was saying…" Scott took a step forward, resuming the matter at hand. "If you want a fight, fine, we will fight you. Let's end this. But not here."

"…" Bile raised his eyebrow, with his finger still firmly gripped on the M-60's trigger.

"This is a school. We should settle this somewhere innocent children won't get caught in the crossfire."

"Well, thing is, you see we're super villains. We're the type of people who object to the state giving pensions to war widows."

"…" Scott took a deep breath.

"What in the six hundred universes do you think would make us care about the lives of your school kids?"

"…For starters, it would've made us go lighter on you." Scott responded, fairly certain that he had already given Kitty enough time to evacuate the children to the underground complex.

"Is that right? Because if I remember correctly, we just brought you kids to school the last time we tussled." Bile retorted, chuckling at the situation.

"Take your time guys, really, I'm fine…very comfortable here. In fact, I'm that smell, like bacon burning." Logan reminded, still on the ground.

"…" Scott turned to Logan, and then faced Bile again. "Well?" he asked, to which Bile shrugged his shoulders as a reply.

"Okay. Let's dance, then." Without warning, Scott let the crimson beam of solar energy shoot out his eyes, catching Bile off guard. The shock forced him to pull the barrel up, sending a few bullets into the sky before getting blown away by the optic blast. "X-Men, attack!" he then ordered, as Henry and Colossus sprinted ahead of him, hungry for some payback.

**Memory Lane/17:33**

"Where are we now?" Derrick asked as he followed Emma through a gray hall. Portraits were hung on the wall, some massive, others not so much, with all of them playing memories from his life.

"Do take a wild guess." Emma responded, stopping as she noticed a particular frame, portraying his freshman year of high school. "…Derrick, I need you to come here."

"…Yeah? What is it?" the young man picked up his face as he found a look of concern on Emma's face.

"Be a dear and tell me about this memory." She quickly instructed.

"That? My…my first year, in high school, before I transferred here; I was in the Massachusetts academy. The place you were teaching." He explained, as he watched the portion of his past unravel before his eyes.

"Are you certain you remember all of this happening?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"…yeah. That's where Mark and I met, you can ask him. He…" Derrick defended, becoming much more worried with the stern tone that the teacher had.

"No." Emma corrected.

"…No?"

"No."

"But…"

"Yes?"

"…I got first place at an art contest." He said weakly.

"…there's no Massachusetts Academy, Derrick. At least not anymore. It's been closed for years."

"…No. I remember. I remember! I was there..."

"Yes, apparently you do remember. Unfortunately, everything you may remember, everything you may know about yourself…"

**Front Lawn/17:34**

Manacle let out a battle cry as he hoisted Logan to the air and threw him across the lawn, right at Henry. Even though the Logan was practically immortal, it didn't follow that he was immune to pain. The blue-furred beast grunted in pain as Logan slammed into him at high velocity, quickly sending him down to the ground. Not letting up, Manacle then focused his mutant energy and willed an endless supply of psionic chains into existence, wrapping themselves around him to create an armor that shone and burned like fire. "That's never a good sign…" Logan muttered as he got off his teammate.

All the while, Coil rocketed herself from Manacle's shoulders, headed straight for Colossus. The steel mutant stopped and readied himself, as he watched Coil outstretch her arms, ready to tackle him to the ground. A second later, their collision forced them rolling to the ground, with Coil continuously elongating and wrapping herself around the Colossus, stretching her arms while they exchanged blows. She knew that one direct hit from the steel mutant could be enough to break her, which was why she concentrated as much on fighting him as she did stretching her body to accommodate the brunt of his fists. By then, Manacle had already taken both Henry and Logan's attention as they tussled on the right side of the lawn, each one dependent on their strength to win the battle. "Mist, take point!" Teleplex ordered, as the woman, still in the front seat of the pick-up, took out a Glock handgun and fired at Scott through the open passenger seat window.

"…!" Scott dove to his right as the bullets flew past him, save for one that managed to tag his shoulder, giving the woman enough time to open the rear window and climb to the back of the truck. "Tear the bastard to shreds." Teleplex hissed as Mist took the helm of the mounted M-60. She turned it to Scott, who she found on his feet, not even bothering to take advantage of the attack initiative he apparently had. "Not again…" Teleplex moaned, as he recognized the young woman who appeared behind the Mist Mistress. "Hello again." Kitty greeted, slugging the older mutant right across the jaw.

**Memory Lane/17:35**

"…" Derrick stared at the framed picture, his breath the only sound in the mental vacuum.

"Hm. I'm, impressed. I was fairly certain that you'd start spouting a litany of denial." Emma declared, as she watched the life figuratively seep away from the young man's body. "…or you could just be in shock."

"…Shock. I'm still in shock." He whispered, brushing back his hair.

"Ah. You're not really sweating, you know. You jus think…"

"No, no… I…I know that something…there's something that isn't right with me. I knew that. I just…"

"That would be denial. It's usually followed by…"

"Denial? Of course I'm in denial you heartless…woman!"

"How terribly articulate."

"You think this is funny? Coming into my head and messing me up like a…!"

"You didn't think that whatever was wrong with you was actually that your childhood was an elaborately orchestrated hoax?"

"…What? What the fu-"

"Before you began acting like it was a season ender to a WB show… that was the thought you refused to finish. Not that I watch anything from that bloody network…"

"…But…my mom and dad…"

"Yes?"

"No, if…my tuition! I mean, my mom and dad, they have to be alive, they need to exist to have to pay for me being here!" he shot back.

"…Well, that was a peculiarity that I investigated."

"…investi-" before he could finish, another image of Emma came from behind him.

"I just cross-referenced your account number to the bank that you keep your money." she announced.

"What the hell are you-" Derrick turned and found the Emma standing behind him, though the one in front of him just seconds ago was now gone.

"No one has touched your account for more than a year, now. You're parents haven't sent you any more money than what you already brought along."

"…I don't understand."

"It's all you, Derrick. You've been paying with what I can only, hopefully presume, is your own money. And you do have quite a lot."

"…can't be…"

"Didn't you notice, Derrick? Look closer." Emma instructed, stepping aside, and pointing to a picture frame.

"…" Derrick hesitantly turned to one of the portraits, one that celebrated his twelfth birthday.

"They don't have any faces." Emma declared, as she watched the expression of horror dawn in the young man's eyes.

**Front Lawn/17:36**

The Mist Mistress shrieked in pain as she fell back, but unfortunately for Kitty, she kept her hand on the handle of the M-60, forcing it to swing in the young mutant's direction. Kitty wasn't able to phase in time, just as the massive body of the M-60 cracked against her shoulder, sending her down as well. And before Kitty could even recover, the Mist Mistress flexed her leg, and then viciously booted the younger mutant in the stomach as hard as she could. It was enough to send Kitty stumbling off of the pick-up, and down the ground, on the opposite end of where Scott was.

"Damn it!" Scott muttered as he poised his hand on the side of his visor, ready to take the Mist Mistress out. But before he could open fire, a mass of blue crashed right into him from the side, fracturing a couple of his ribs and breaking the rest from the force of the impact. Manacle had just hurled Henry in Scott's direction, and was now back trying to crush Logan. He swung with his right, but the nimble Canadian ducked beneath it, standing again as he reached Manacle's back. "Stop moving, you little…"

With a feral cry, Logan plunged both his fists into Manacle's back, hoping that a direct lunge could be enough to penetrate the larger mutant's psionic armor. It didn't work. With a snarl, Manacle turned and back fisted Logan with enough force to send him to the ground. Not relenting, Logan sat right back up, only to get slammed back down by Manacle's gigantic boot. "Graaah!" Logan tried to arch back to distribute the pain from his body, but the focused energy of Manacle's armor made it impossibly difficult to do so. Back at the pick-up, the Mist Mistress clumsily got back to her feet, and pointed the M-60 at the direction where Kitty fell. "Time to die." She hissed. Kitty readied to phase, but stopped as she noticed Colossus gain the upper hand in his battle with Coil, and with a loud cry, he hoisted his enemy's elongated form to the air. "Huh?" The Mist Mistress turned her head back, wondering what had Kitty so transfixed, only to find Colossus with both hands using Coil's body as a massive whip. "Oh, sh-"

**Memory Lane/17:39**

"No! No! I remember everything! I have a family!" Derrick screamed, as the toll of Emma's psychic rummaging began to take its toll.

"Derrick, I'm sorry, but none of these are real." Emma argued, looking around at the portraits of joy, suffering, love and hate. "Someone has tampered with your mind, someone-"

"No! I know who I am! I lived in Oregon 'till I was six! We moved to Indiana after my grandma died! I remember everything!"

"…" Emma closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as her body began to change into impenetrable diamond. "I'm sorry, Derrick."

"…What…what are you…why are you like that?" Derrick asked, the trepidation clear in his voice.

"This may be a bit uncomfortable." She warned, right before she slammed her fist through the nearest portrait, pulling out what looked like tar from inside. "What are you doing? Stop that!" Derrick screamed, as Emma turned her attention to another portrait, punching right into it and tearing the memory apart. "Stop!" he cried again, and once again his plea fell on deaf ears, as Emma continued violating each and every supposed memory that he had.

"Please, stop it!"

**Front Lawn/17:41**

"Get out of there, now!" Teleplex shouted. The Mist Mistress let out a loud shriek just as Colossus slammed Coil's elongated torso right on top of her, nearly tearing the pick-up in two from the force of the impact. "You do not touch her." Colossus remarked. "…Thank you." Kitty whispered as she got back to her feet, her heart warming up to how Peter valiantly defended her. It was almost enough for her to forget that they were in battle. "…Peter!" A fact that she soon remembered, when she noticed Coil's feet suddenly wrap themselves around Colossus' neck. "Don't!"

Returning the favor, Coil lifted him off of his feet, and then slammed him right into the mansion, taking down an entire section of the wall along with him. "Peter!" Kitty readied to take the woman on, oblivious to the fact that Bile had already recovered as well. Still on his stomach, the old mutant pulled out a .44 Magnum, and took aim. "Bye, bye." He muttered, as he pulled the trigger. Kitty didn't have time to turn as the bullet hit her from behind. "Ah!" Thankfully enough, the yellow design on her costume was interlaced with Kevlar, which took the brunt of the force. Doesn't mean it didn't hurt like hell. With a pained expression, she fell on her face, unable to move.

"Kitty!" Scott got back in the game, ignoring the fact that his ribs were al in different locations, as he aimed his optic blast on the wheels of the front end of the pick-up. It had enough force to propel the automotive, causing it to roll into the air, and into the old mutant's direction. "That's never good…" Bile whispered through gritted teeth as he gathered his strength and sprinted forward, diving and rolling as the truck spiraled just an inch over him. As he got to his knees, he immediately hurled an incendiary grenade in retaliation. Straight at Scott's direction.

**Derrick's Mind/17:45**

"Don't!" the young mutant screamed at the top of his lungs as he attempted to tackle Emma to the ground, not realizing how much of a bad idea diving at a mass of impenetrable diamond was. Emma knew, and sidestepped out of Derrick's way.

"Don't fight me, Derrick. I'm here to help you." She reminded, as she watched the young man clumsily get back to his feet. He extended his hands to his sides in an attempt to bar Emma from doing anymore damage to the portrait behind him.

"You can't do this. You don't have the right!"

"Listen to me, Derrick…"

"Get out of my head." He ordered, clenching his teeth in anger. Behind him was a memory of his first and only award for academic recognition, the only moment, which he believed, made his parents proud.

"Derrick, I'm-"

"Get out of my head, now!"

"I am doing this for your own good!" Emma snapped back, her voice as loud as thunder. "Now step out of my way or I swear I will be much, much more insensitive." She threatened as she stepped closer, with her eyes glowing light blue.

"…" Derrick closed his eyes, clearly fighting back his emotions, as he let Emma desecrate one of his most cherished memories.

"…There you are." Emma remarked, as the torn image revealed a cavernous passage, leading into absolute darkness.

**Front lawn/17:46 **

Scott got on one knee for a better position, as he fired his optic blast on Bile's grenade while still in midair, resulting in a miniature fireball that lit up the dead sky. Meanwhile, Henry was back on the offensive, lunging at Manacle, then leaping off of him just as he'd make contact, easily causing the larger mutant to lose his balance. And more importantly, force him off of Logan who was already having trouble breathing. "Finally…" he muttered, catching his breath and jumping back up, ready to resume doing whatever it was he was best at doing. "My paws are burning." Henry noted as he kept on catapulting himself off of Manacle's psionic armor. "I have a huge boot mark on my chest, stop complaining." Logan retorted.

"People, less talk, more kicking ass." Scott ordered as he began to outmaneuver Coil, who now had her attention fixed on him. It gave Bile enough time to salvage the M-60 that was lying on the ground. "Kicking ass, or saving it?" Logan asked as he avoided being pummeled by a double axe-handle. "Just a moment, slim." He then reassured, as he positioned himself in front of Henry.

"Go for the eyes." The blue-furred mutant reminded, as he hurled Logan into the air.

"…!" Manacle stopped as he found Logan rocketing to his direction, his claws unsheathed, with a look of utter intensity emblazoned in his face. With a single swing, Logan managed to tear through both Manacle's eyes, the only part of his body that wasn't protected by his psionic suit of armor. After the initial shock, it always took a few seconds before the brain could process the pain that the nerve endings sent it. But when it did, his cries of pain tore through the sound of gunshots as Bile began to open fire, sending a dozen or so bullets burying themselves in Logan's system as they caught him in his landing.

"Logan!" Henry shouted as he watched his colleague get torn apart by heavy gunfire.

**The Subconscious/17:49**

Emma and Derrick found themselves descending a massive clearing after navigating into the abyss, with a massive, stone monolith standing in the middle. It was surrounded by a moat of black water. "How awfully self-centered off you." Emma remarked as the stone monument showed itself to be the young man's name, spelled vertically, with the last letter of his surname planted firmly on the ground.

"…What is this place?" Derrick asked, as they landed.

"…Hmm, looks like we may have some trouble here…" Emma noted, as she drew closer to the letter 'S'.

"Trouble? What trouble?"

"The kind that could give us Alzheimer's if you don't let me concentrate. Now…be still." She instructed, as her eyes crackled with blue energy.

"Does that mean, 'sit in a corner and shut up'?" he asked.

"You get an A for subtext."

"…"

"Oh, and Derrick?"

"…Yeah?"

"The pain will only last a minute." Emma remarked, as she extended her arms, creating a massive, psychic feedback that had an equivalent of Derrick's mind catching fire. It was fortunate that no one heard him scream. _"This is for his own good…" _the telepath reassured herself, as she couldn't help but be bothered by the shrill scream of the young man. Emma focused her psychic energies as she started reshaping the 'S' in the middle of the island, ignoring, though with difficulty, the strain her psionic manipulation was putting on Derrick. "Come on…" she whispered, as she used every mental pick locking that all her years had taught her, avoiding the small, unseen fissures and crevices that could draw her mind and destroy it. "Be strong, Derrick…" she then muttered, right as she was finally able to permute the 'S' shape into that of a circle. An opening, to the final chamber that she was so certain something hid.

"…Done." She thought, as a feeling of relief began to swell in her. Derrick was on his knees, both hands clutching his head.

"…What did you do?" he asked, his voice cracked and weak.

"I made us a door." Emma responded.

"…No…you didn't." he replied, as tears began to once again swell from his eyes.

"This is where we'll find the answers we need, Derrick. We need to go in." she encouraged, not admitting that his words worried her.

"You're not letting us in."

"…"

"You let her out."

"…!"

"You just killed us all." He muttered in horror, as a stream of memories, shaped like skeletal wraiths and spirits carrying images of a tortured life in their wake, clawed their way from out of the new opening. "What on Earth?" Emma turned and realized that the circle wasn't an entrance. It was a letter. The last letter to his real name. "…Gallio." She read, as the black water surrounding them erupted in a blaze of hellfire. "Oh, God in Heaven, not her…" And as the name finally sank in for Emma, a massive bolt of pitch black psionic energy tore itself from the darkness above them, and struck her down. Now it was her turn to scream.

**Danger Room/17:50 **

The Stepford Cuckoos' eyes lit up as they all turned and looked at something past the blue-tinted ceiling. "Something's wrong." They declared in unison, as every other telepath in the room began to feel their minds strain. "What is it?' Mark asked. "Is this about Derrick? Is he okay?" he asked, getting ahead of himself. After all, his best friend wasn't in the Danger Room with everybody else. "…"

"What do you see?' he asked again, the students around them listening in as well.

"There's…nothing. Nothing but black."

**Front Lawn/17:51 **

Still screaming as loud as his lungs would allow, Manacle held onto what was left of his eyes as he fled the battleground, heading for the woods where the blanket of nightfall took him in and disappeared. Henry got on all fours and ran towards Bile, who had just unloaded more than half his clip on Logan. "Go to hell!" Bile shouted as he aimed for the blue-furred mutant, who once again jumped from left to right in order to avoid the bullets from cutting him to ribbons. After all, unlike Logan, his bones weren't made from an impregnable metal. And this time, Mist Mistress wasn't hiding under a manhole ready to burn his skin off. In other words, for Henry, it was all good.

"Hit him! Hit him!" Teleplex shouted in the old man's earpiece. Bile gritted his teeth as he unsuccessfully tried to stop the beast, and as the blue-furred mutant drew closer, his fear only multiplied tenfold as the bullets stopped pouring out. "What?" his gaze fell to the side, as he found Kitty on the ground, her hand extended and phased into the M-60's bullet chamber. "Touchdown, jackass." She muttered, as Henry speared the old mutant off of his feet. "That had to hurt."

Back by the front doors, Scott unloaded another helping of optic energy at Coil, who spun her body like a ring in order to avoid it. She was the last one standing, and she didn't need a degree to know that her chances of winning against the X-Men single-handedly were single to none. Thus she opted to do what any rational being would do in the face of an insurmountable odd. "I'm getting out of here!" she shouted to her radio, as she began to retreat. "No! Stay there and fight!" Teleplex ordered, switching to her screen. "This is our time! This is our glory!" he screamed, getting up to his feet and slamming his hands down on to the panel.

"Shove it up your ass!" she snapped back as she attempted to slither away, only to stop as she felt something grab onto her feet. "You wish to leave, then?" he asked. "Let me help you." Colossus then declared, as he lifted Coil off of her stomach and began to spin her like a pinwheel. "No!" Coil screamed as Colossus let go of her feet, propelling her into the horizon. "Good riddance." Logan muttered as he lay recuperating on the grass.

"What do we do with him?' Henry asked as he got off Bile, who was still convulsing from the pain, and the Mist Mistress, who was looked half-dead and was out cold.

"Let's just give S.H.I.E.L.D. a call. Tell them to clean this mess up." Scott commented.

"It's over." Kitty noted, as Peter helped her back to her feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked, supporting her up.

"I'll live. Always do." She responded, causing Peter to smile at her. "Let's-" before he could finish his suggestion, a sudden, sharp pain, like the shrill cry of a banshee, tore into his mind, along with the minds of every other X-Men. All of them screamed in pain as they got on their knees.

"…" a woman stood in the doorway, with her eyes literally crackling with psionic energy.

"…Emma?" Scott turned with an exhausted breath, as the pain slowly lifted from his and his teammates' skulls.

"Well, what the hell is happening now?" Teleplex asked out loud as he fixed the figure of the woman in the center of his screen.

"…" Emma tilted her head up, seemingly focusing on the sky. Teleplex's heart stopped as he realized that she was looking right at him. "Oh…my…Go-" the old man's exclamation turned into a shrill scream as a telepathic bolt slowly started tearing his mind apart, causing blood to flow from every orifice on his head. A heavy static took over the screen as his vision blurred, and inevitably succumbed to the darkness.

"…Emma, what are you…?" Scott stopped as he realized that his psychic rapport with the woman began to strain.

"…"

"…Emma?"

"…"

"…baby?"

**Chapter, End**

**Next Chapter – The last hurrah! **

**Author's note: Well, hope you liked that. Be a dear and leave some kind (or not so kind, whatever) words behind:D**


	10. White

**Author's Note: here it is, the last chapter to my remarkably run-of-the-mill X-Adventure. I'd like to thank everyone who made it here all the way, it really means a lot. So without further ado, here is the last chapter to Astonishing X-Men: "Black" **

**Chapter 10: "White"**

"We should help them." A female student suggested, straining to get heard over the crowded Danger Room. "We've all got superpowers, we can't just coop ourselves in the 'Panic Room' here whenever something bad happens!" she argued. A male, winged student contested, pointing out to her that they wouldn't have a chance. It was only seconds later that the whole student body began arguing amongst themselves, making for a very poor environment.

_"We need to get out of here." _Mindee telepathically communicated to Mark, who still looked very much concerned for the welfare of his best friend. _"Why? What happened?" _he asked, keeping theirconversation mentally.

_"We found Derrick."_

_"Where is he? Is he okay?" _

_"He's upstairs, exiting the X-Lab. We think he just coerced Miss Frost into killing the X-Men…"_

**Front Lawn18:00 **

"Emma…" Scott took a step toward his lover, who looked at him with an expression of puzzlement. Like a child who did not know what to do. "…Scott?" she titled her head, cautious of the man who was approaching her. Scott could already feel the energy emanate from Emma, so much more than he knew she actually had. Possibly had. "Yes, it's me. Listen to me… you need to calm down." he took another step forward, raising his mental shields just as years of tutelage under Professor Xavier have earned him. The rest of the X-Men stood at the ready, their eyes fixed on the threat of a first order telepath who could kill them all just by thinking hard enough. "I can hear it. Hear everything…" she whispered, pressing her palms against the air as if she was examining an invisible wall. "Thoughts…emotions…my God…I can't…control…" Emma shook her head, falling on her knees. "Emma, you can do this." Scott immediately got on his knees, gently holding his lover by her arms. The strain on his kind just by being close to her was almost unbearable. "It got to the others…it got to Rachel, and Kitty…but they got caught off guard. Not like you….not you. You can fight this thing. You can keep it from-" Scott stopped as Emma raised her head, revealing a pair of glassy, soulless eyes.

"…You don't trust me?" she asked, her body trembling.

"Emma…?"

"I can hear you. I can hear all of you! There's poison swirling in your heads!"

"Emma, whatever it is you're hearing, it's not real!"

"Like vermin, rats scrambling, covered in filth!"

"Emma, fight it!"

"Quiet!" Without warning, Emma transformed into organic diamond, and violently back fisted Scott. He didn't even have enough time to scream in pain as he found himself flying back across the lawn. "Scott!" Kitty turned and made his way to the team leader's body as he hit the ground.

"All of you…" Emma got to her feet, her voice shaking. "Stop…stop…why do you do this to me?" she asked, shaking her head. "I've fought alongside you…isn't that enough? I've put my life on the line for your cause! My life! Countless times! Why doesn't anyone believe me?"

"…" Kitty bit her lower lip as she held on to Scott's unconscious body, realizing that Emma's deluded accusations, at least for her, were ringing true. It was the first time she saw Emma lose herself. Succumb to her insecurities, her despair, her emotions. Her humanity. It made Kitty's decision all the more difficult. _'Sorry Scott…" _Kitty took a deep breath, and shouted at the top of her lungs. "X-Men! Take her down!"

**Headmaster's Office/18:04 **

With a loud gasp, Derrick stumbled to the ground as he found himself back in the headmaster's office, with the bookshelf leading to the X-Labs closing behind him. Everything was a blur. His head was ringing, and his body trembled, while a small stream of blood trickled down his nose. It was the result of the severe, psychic bolt that he had just unleashed, something that he didn't know he was capable of. "…" Swallowing as much air as he could, he forced himself back to his feet, trying the best he could to ignore the pain that stabbed at his entire being. "Concentrate, concentrate…" he mumbled to himself, as the world kept on spinning around him. "Just…don't…heave…" he urged himself, as he grabbed on to the main desk. It was enough to support him, though he still couldn't find enough strength to stop his legs from shaking. _"Think…think…what happened…why the hell am I…" _Derrick bit his lower lip."…God…what did I just do?" As certain as fate found humor in misery, a steady stream of memories began to flow back to him, and all he could think of was how much horror he had just unleashed on the world. "Oh God." As the shock settled, he lost grip off the office desk, and found himself falling back. And for the first time in his life, he didn't care that no one was there to catch him.

**Front Lawn/18:05**

Colossus was the first one to follow Kitty's call, as he charged towards the diamond woman who stood still on the empty doorway. He knew that Emma normally didn't have the ability to concentrate on her telepathy while assuming her diamond form at the same time. He knew he was stronger than her. He thought that hitting her hard and fast would be the quickest way to end the threat. He didn't know how wrong he was. Emma narrowed her colorless eyes, and with just a wave of her hand, the world for Colossus burned to white. "Peter?" Kitty's voice was grave with concern as she watched the man she loved hold onto his face, and begin to scream. She didn't see what he saw. A surgical bed. A hundred and one devices of torture. "Oh God…Hank, Logan, go feral!" she instructed, as the two mutants charged at Emma from both sides. Not that they needed her to tell them. In an instant, both Logan and Henry turned their humanity off, switching to their primal, instinctive selves. Just like they did when they fought over what to do with the sample of Ord's 'cure'. They must have forgotten who stopped them.

Logan was the first of the two of them to attack, swinging back his arm, ready to strike Emma down, when he felt something pierce itself against his claws. "…?" he quickly shot his gaze behind him. "Oh my God…" Logan's heart stopped as he found a beautiful, red-haired woman, dressed in old, western clothing, impaled on his clenched fist. "…James?" her eyes watered as the blood began to flow down her light green dress. "Rose?"

Just as Emma finished casting Logan's mental torture, she turned to her right, and found the Beast in mid-air, both his arms stretched over his head. "Oh…" With a loud crack, Henry slammed both his arms over her head, with enough force to tear stone asunder. Stone, not diamond. The impact forced Emma back to her knees, nothing more. And the fact that she was immune to pain gave the blue-furred mutant much more to worry about. But Henry didn't stop there. He gave her an uppercut as he landed, finally getting her off her feet, and then punched her hard in the stomach, sending her flying into the middle of the main lobby. Henry then soldiered on, knowing full well that a second's relent could be enough to give Emma the upper hand. He took two seconds. With a look of agitation, Emma got back up and grabbed Henry by his neck, stopping him in his tracks. "How small of you." She snarled as she effortlessly threw him across the building's main lobby, sending him crashing up the wooden staircase and into the second floor.

"…Just like the world…"

**Headmaster's Office/–at the same time-**

"Derrick!" Mark grabbed onto his best friend's shoulders, catching him before he could crack his skull against the floorboards. The Stepford Cuckoos followed him into the room, since it was their direction after all, that led Mark to where they currently were. "…" they all stopped by the doorway, cautious of the new telepathic signature that Derrick possessed. "Mark? He called weakly, turning his head, in hopes, in a wish, to find someone who would take care of him in that dark time. "…Mark?" Derrick suddenly felt Mark's hands on his collar. "You…" With a sudden rush of energy, he forcefully slammed Derrick on top of the desk, causing Scott and Emma's personal effects clattering to the ground.

"Mark!" the three sisters called. One of the very first things Emma ever taught her prize girls was how to conceal their emotions in order to always remain a step ahead. This was not a day in which the lesson was in effect,

"Is it you? Did you do this?" he interrogated, shaking Derrick by the shirt with each question; accusations that Derrick valiantly denied.

"Let him go!" Mindee screamed, running up to him, and pulling at his arm. "Tell me! Do you know what's happening downstairs? Miss Frost is trying to kill the X-Men!"

"Mindee, get back here, we need to concentrate together to get him off Derrick!" Celeste yelled, a plea that Mindee ignored thanks to her emotions.

"Mindee!" the two sisters called again, just as she managed to pull an arm off of Derrick's collar. "Mark, stop! Please!" Derrick pleaded.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked at him, as Mark resumed keeping both his hands firmly, and uncomfortably, by Derrick's neck. "You told me! He forced Miss Frost didn't he? Just like he forced Miss Summers! He's the bad guy! He lied to all of us!"

"Get off of him!"

"He betrayed our trust!"

"He's your best friend!"

**Front Lawn/18:08 **

"Scott, Scott wake up…she can't use her mind tricks on you. You know how to fight her." Kitty urged, trying to shake Scott back into consciousness. "Come on…use that psychic rapport of yours, bring her back…!" Kitty gritted her teeth as she turned her attention back to Emma, who was still in the main lobby, but clearly headed her way. "Oh no…"

"Kitty!" Henry yelled as he pounced on Emma from behind, forcing her face-first to the ground. "Get to the Stepford girls! We need telepaths!" he yelled, clearly out of his feral form.

"She'll kill them!" Kitty protested, gasping in shock as she watched Emma crack the Beast's ribs with a swift blow from her elbow. The blue-furred mutant howled in pain, but kept his weight on her back. "Let them use Cerebra!" he shouted, right before Emma crashed the back of her diamond head on his nose.

"Hank!" Kitty got to her feet, while Emma turned on her back, and forcefully booted Henry off of her. The beast bent back and landed on his front paws, using them to regain balance as his hind legs landed.

"I thought you were my friend!" Emma growled, raising her hands in a battling position. "But you're just like everyone else! Scheming takers the bloody lot of you!"

"Emma, I find you adorable. That's why it will hurt me to pummel you to submission." Henry retorted, thought clearly out of breath, as he began to let his feral state take over once again. The animal. _"The insect." _Emma thought, as she recalled what it was Henry feared the most.

"…Damn it…" Kitty turned her gaze to Logan, who was leaning beside the open doorway, begging forgiveness to an invisible someone. He was in tears. Her eyes then shot to Peter, who was on his knees, an expression of resignation, of pure misery on his steel face. _"…Okay…get the Stepford girls…" _Kitty began to concentrate, deciding it better to phase to her destination, rather than risk getting Emma's unwanted attention. _"Stop this madne-" _before Kitty could finish her thought, a hand suddenly grabbed her ankle. "Scott?" she turned to look down at the man by her feet, only to find the whole world around her change. A place with people, mutants to be exact, scrambling to safety, as skyscrapers as tall as you can look up gave way to a massive, mechanical abomination. A wild sentinel. "Kitty…" the middle-aged man holding to her ankle called, his face a mixture of joy and misery. A face she recognized, and missed dearly. "…daddy?"

**Headmaster's Office/-at the same time- **

"…Mark…" Derrick fought back the tears as his eyes locked onto his best friend's. "Let him go." Mindee said again, seeing the fact that he no longer shook and shouted at Derrick being a large improvement of the situation.

"But…I remember…I didn't go to Massachusetts, it's closed…I went to Don Bosco…I…why did you say that I went to Massachusetts with you? Why did you force me to believe it?" Mark asked, the pain of betrayal clearly slithering its way in his voice.

"…He didn't mean to!" Celeste and Phoebe responded.

"…What?' Mark turned and fixed his stare on the two sisters.

"He didn't mean for any of this." Mindee added.

"…" Derrick closed his eyes, unable to stop a tear from streaking down his cheek. Mark returned his attention to his best friend, his mind trying desperately to remain angry. _"He has the power to change memories…to take control of people's minds…he could burn my hands off if he wanted to…so…why doesn't he stop me?" _Mark then asked himself, with a voice that could only be described as one that came from his heart. "Oh God…Derr?" Mark quickly let go off Derrick's collar and took a step back, the horror of what he had just become evident in his wide eyes. His best friend gasped for air as he slid to the floor until he reached a sitting position, using the side of the desk to lean his back on. Celeste and Phoebe rushed to Derrick's side, while Mindee kept her arms around Mark's. "…What's happening?" Mark asked, with a look of utter defeat strewn in his eyes. "I…"

"It's all my fault." Derrick declared, just as he got back enough breath to talk again. "I did all of this…"

"…"

"I'm so sorry…" he shook his head as he apologized, covering his face with his hands. "…" Mark gently pulled away from Mindee, and silently made his way to his best friend. Derrick stopped and stared at Mark, who knelt in front of him. "…What did you do?"

"…"

"Derrick, please tell me…what did you do?"

"…I remembered everything."

"What? Remembered what?"

"Who I really am."

**Main Lobby/18:11**

With a cold smile, Emma watched Henry stumble to the floor, trying to get back on all fours, only to falter and fall. All he knew, his brilliance in genetic theorem and his passion for the arts, started to slip away from him, while he watched his feline body slowly begin to devolve. To lose touch of his humanity, his worst fear of all. "Emma!" interrupted a male voice, coming from front lawn. She turned just in time to find a red, flash of hard light to greet her. The sound of earth shattering tore through the mansion, as the force of the concentrated optic blast propelled Emma through the far wall, and into the empty living room. "…" Scott took his finger off of the edge of his visor and ran into the mansion, resolute not to let Emma take him out like she did the rest of the team. "Scott…" he stopped in his tracks as the dust settled, finding Emma back on her feet, emerging from the hole that she was blasted through.

"…I'm sorry." He muttered under his breath, as he pushed the button on the edge of his visor once again, shooting another short burst. "…" Emma charged forward, ducking beneath Scott's beam, and then sprinting towards him in one swift motion. Scott adjusted his aim, when Emma suddenly extended her hand and released a psychic bolt that nearly broke through every mental shield Scott had, sending him staggering back with a grimace. Fortunately enough, he managed to regain composure just as Emma made a swing at him, prompting him to raise both his arms to block her blow. "…!" She was strong. Much stronger than she normally was. He didn't know how, he didn't know why, all he knew was that she had enough strength in her to knock him out with one quick blow. Must be why he felt like the bones in both his arms were torn in pieces. Not that something like broken bones was enough to stop him.

**Headmaster's Office/-at the same time-**

"Who you really are?" Mark turned to the sisters who now stood behind him, their eyes glowing with energy. "We see you now. Everything's different."

"…I…I wasn't…I came from a place called Nova Roma." He started, clearing his throat soon after.

"That was where you were born…to a woman named Selene." Continued the sisters as they probed Derrick's mind, unraveling his past like a ball of thread.

"Selene?" Mark turned his attention back to Derrick.

"…Selene Gallio... she was the Black Queen. The worst one."

"…the Black…so what? You're a super villain's kid? That you're big secret?" Mark placed his hands on his best friend's shoulders. "Well guess what, you're not the only kid out here who's running away from psycho parents! Who cares if you're mom led her life trying to kill people; it doesn't mean you need to follow in her footsteps!" Mark argued, this time no longer out of his misdirected anger. Derrick shook his head.

"…I can't help it." He responded, finally letting his tears pour down his face.

"You have so much power. You can't control it." Mindee interrupted, once again breaking away from the uni-mind. "The mental block…you put it on yourself."

"…And the teachers going insane was a side-effect of your power trying to break loose." Added Celeste. Mark bit his lower lip, turning again to the sisters.

"That doesn't make sense! If Derrick couldn't control his powers then why just the teachers? Why didn't we all start going crazy?"

"I was programmed this way…" Derrick answered.

"Programmed? What the hell are you-"

"…My mother…she raised me…raised me to kill the X-Men. I couldn't stand it so I ran away...I wanted to forget so badly that…that I forced myself to forget…"

"…The side-effect. It was your subconscious acting out what it was trained to do." Celeste surmised.

"…" Mark shook his head. "Then you can still stop this! You can, downstairs, stop them from killing each other…" There was a glimmer of hope renewed in Mark's eyes. Hope that Derrick couldn't bear to extinguish.

"I'm sorry…I can't."

**Main Lobby/18:12**

Emma took another swing, but Scott quickly leaned back to avoid her fist from shattering his skull. He knew that she was acting out of passion, out of whatever emotions an invisible entity is force feeding her. It made her go for the hurt, instead of the kill. Made her want to beat and humiliate them into bloody submission rather than force aneurysms in their brains and kill them all in an instant. Her psychic emissions broke through each mental shield he managed to conjure, keeping him concentrating not only on the avoiding Emma's fists, but keeping her out of his mind as well. Emma swung again this time with Scott ducking beneath it by getting on one knee. "…!" He then immediately pressed the button for his ruby quartz to lift open, sending a wide, powerful blast up her stomach, strong enough to hurl her upward, through the ceiling and into the attic. Scott took a deep breath as he got on all fours, regaining his strength in that single moment's respite. He didn't mind the blood that dripped from his nose, the effect of the strain that Emma forced on his mind. He knew full well that the only reason Emma couldn't use her mental powers to their full extent on him was because of their psychic rapport, a connection that, much like Emma's powers, multiplied tenfold. A connection that made him see what she was planning to do, and gave him half a second's time to create a shield to counter it. _"…I really thought you loved me…" _came a woman's voice, directly into his head. "Emma?"

_"I see now…why I can't reach your mind…"_

"…" Scott felt her presence floating in his mind, like a predator waiting for a moment of weakness to strike. _"It's already under someone else's control." _The voice concluded, with a tone that sounded too much like it was from a woman who had realized the man she loved didn't love her back. Love was irrational after all. Makes sense that a crazy person could still feel it even if she'd forget everything else. _"You sick…sick liar…how dare you play with me like this?" _her voice thundered in his head, so much that he felt his mind strain against it. _"I loved you!" _With a cry that could have shook the foundations of the building, Scott watched as the ceiling above cracked wide open, with Emma rocketed towards him in full force, a stream of diamond tears trailing from her eyes. "I loved you!"

**Headmaster's Office/-at the same time- **

"What do you mean you can't? You've got the power, use it!" Mark argued, keeping his hands firmly on Derrick's shoulders.

"I can't…it's…I'm a weapon. She made it so that as long as I have brainwaves, my power would work…I can't stop it…"

"Then…then do it again! Block your memories, block your powers, we can start from scratch!"

"I can't! I'm not strong enough anymore!"

"Oh no…" The Stepfords' eyes lit up as they felt Emma's thoughts reach their mind.

"What now?" Mark asked.

"It's Miss Frost…" the three sisters responded. "…she won't be stopping with the X-Men."

"…What's she planning to do?"

"She thinks she wants to end the world."

"She what?"

"It's a thing with her."

"…She can do that?"

"Not alone. But with Cerebra…"

"Oh God." Mark turned to Derrick, and the second he realized he couldn't find the answer with his best friend, he turned his gaze to the sisters once more. "…Mindee, you three…you can stop her." He then suggested.

"We can't. She's too strong."

"Then… can't you at least stall her?"

"She taught us everything we know, Mark, what can we possibly throw at her?" Phoebe shot back.

"I don't know! Something! For Christ's sake, she'll kill us all!"

"Then why don't you do something?" Celeste snapped.

"He'll kill her!" Mindee protested, knowing full well just what Mark's mutant power was.

"Well, it's her or us!" Phoebe objected.

"Too many people have died here already!" Mark protested.

"And what the hell do you think will happen if we let her kill us all? We live happily ever after?" Phoebe shouted back.

"Stop…" Derrick muttered, while Mark got on his feet and argued further. _"All of you, stop!" _he telepathically shouted, prompting his four friends to stop and take notice.

**Main Lobby/18:13**

Scott dove out of the way as Emma crashed to the ground, with so much force that she tore through the floor, and landed in one of the passageways in the underground complex. As the floor gave way, both Scott and the still enthralled Henry found themselves sinking to the underground complex along with Emma. "…Christ…" Scott immediately got back to his feet, setting his sights on the woman he loved as she made her way to the end of the corridor. Though he was initially relieved that they landed on the side of the complex opposite the Danger Room, where the children were, it didn't take him long to realize that it wouldn't matter how far they hid. Cerebra would make sure of that.

"Scott…" the man in question stopped for a moment, and turned to find Henry getting back to his feet. "Hank? Are you okay?"

"…"

"…Oh crap." Scott raised his hand to his visor, just as Henry got on all fours and pounced forward, ready to kill one of his best friends, under orders of someone they both dearly loved. It left Scott with no choice, as he fired his optic blast into Henry at point blank. The blue-furred mutant felt the pain hit him like a ten ton hammer, pain that was quickly anesthetized by Emma's mind control, as Scott's optic blast only succeeded in forcing him back. Still in midair, Henry flipped back, landing on the wall, and bouncing off of it at optimal speed. Firing his optic blast at an object with that kind of propulsion would easily shatter it, that's why Scott couldn't risk another firing at Henry. With a loud growl, the beast swung at Scott with his right arm, while Scott himself leaned left to avoid the brunt of his arm. A sharp pain stung Scott's entire body as he wasn't able to lean so far as to avoid Henry's claws; claws which promptly tore his shirt, and the skin beneath, wide open. He's been so accustomed to being on Henry's good side that he forgot how dangerous his best friend could become. Henry landed on all fours, and doubled back for another attempt at tearing Scott's head off of his shoulders.

**Headmaster's Office/-at the same time-**

"There's no other way." Derrick declared, a semblance of strength shining through the fear in his voice. He was already standing upright, the world no longer spinning around him like earlier on.

"No." Mark quickly responded.

"Maybe we can do…maybe we can put the block back in your psyche…" Mindee suggested.

"And then what? We'll just wait for the next time I start losing control?" Derrick asked.

"You're asking us to kill you." Mark reiterated, hoping that he could somehow drill how stupid the idea was into his best friend's skull.

"You think this is easy for me?"

"You make it sound like it is!"

"Hey, don't you think I want to live the rest of my life?"

"…"

"Don't you think I want to spend…no…I'm thinking of the greater good here, Mark! The greater good!"

"No, you're thinking about taking the easy way out! 'Oh, look at me, I'm sacrificing my life for the world, but don't tell anyone I'm doing it because I started the problem in the first place'! You think its noble, you think its great and all that, but it isn't! You'll die! And people'll think that you died because you couldn't stop the mojo you set loose and you f#cking overloaded! That's not being a hero, that's being a fucking coward!"

"…" Derrick's tears weren't stopping.

"You want to be a hero, then you live with the consequences, and you solve the problem! You don't run away, you don't ever run away!"

"There is no other way to solve this! I can't…I can't control it! I'm not some ultra-mutant, I'm just a shell! I'm a transmitter that won't stop making people go crazy! That's…that's how my mother made me…she made it so that as long as I had brainwaves, I'd be a threat to each and every person she wanted to get back on. This…this isn't my power anymore. It's hellfire. It's my crazy mother's birthday present to the whole goddamned world. I spent all of my power trying to lock it away, and now, now it's loose…and I can't stop it anymore."

"…"

"I'm not giving up, Mark. I'm making a choice. ..and I'm scared like hell."

"No…no, there's got to be another way."

**Underground Complex/18:15**

Scott grunted in pain as Henry slammed him against the wall. "Hank…!" He wasn't there. Emma kept him in shadow, while his body acted out the violence she needed in her behalf. Scott needed to remind himself that as he felt Henry's claws drill into his shoulders as the beast pinned him in place, keeping his arms from reaching the sides of his visor. And without his costume, Scott didn't have the back-up button that was normally strewn in his glove to trigger his optic blasts. In other words, he was in danger.

"Hank…you have to listen to me…you need to fight it!" Scott shouted, hoping that he could still somehow reach his best friend with words. Reach the mind of the brilliant mind stick within the body of a Beast. Henry roared right in Scott's face, obviously signifying that the Beast has taken over. "…" It also meant that Scott needed to resort to the alternative. "I'm going to owe you for this…" Scott muttered, as he gathered his strength and slammed his knee right below the belt. It worked. The Beast staggered back, giving Scott enough space to fire a focused beam of optic energy, striking Henry right in the middle of his forehead, knocking him out instantly. With a loud, breath of air, Scott slumped to the floor, allowing for at least a moment for his body to recuperate. In the distance, the sound of two, massive metal doors sliding open began to echo. Emma stepped inside the massive, oval chamber, a look of evil intent in her eyes.

**Headmaster's Office/-at the same time- **

"She made it to cerebra." The three sisters reported.

"…She can really do it, huh?" Mark asked. He was sitting on top of the desk, with Derrick sitting beside him as well. Both of them carried expressions of defeat, as they gazed straight ahead, into who knows where. "She can't kill us all just by thinking into Cerebra. She's not strong enough. The strain would kill her first." The Cuckoos explained, losing the shine in their eyes. "She's planning to operate every missile silo on the planet."

"…Oh." Derrick took a deep breath.

"Always flashy. She'll go Skynet and end the world by nuclear fallout…we think it's terribly unoriginal" Celeste bitterly remarked.

"And didn't she just try to end the world last week?" Phoebe asked. "This might be a trend with her."

"Nuclear fallout. Huh. Wouldn't that kill your mom too?" Mark asked.

"I don't know. She's been alive for centuries…maybe she's looking for a release. Or maybe she didn't really think this through." Derrick answered.

"Mr. Summers can't stop her now." The three then noted, as they telepathically watched the doors of the Cerebra lock behind Emma. "Time's up then." Derrick announced, as he hopped of the desk's edge. Mark followed him. They stepped to the center of the room, hearts anxious with hopes of survival, of heroism, and of sacrifice. "…Mindee…Celeste…Phoebe…" Derrick took the time to embrace each one. "…I'm not sure if… my influence over Miss Frost will disappear as soon as I'm…when I'm gone the psychic backlash might still be enough to hurt a lot of people if Miss Frost is still on Cerebra…"

"We know." They responded, their hearts heavy with despair. "…we know."

"Anyone else thinks this is a stupid idea?" Mark asked, though his voice was weak, and he knew in his heart that no alternative was readily available.

"…" Derrick raised his hand and smiled at his best friend.

"…" Mark smiled back.

**Cerebra/18:18**

Emma strode across the bridge, her eyes set on the means to her end. A console and a helmet. Cerebra, a device that could multiply a telepath's gifts tenfold. A machine that could kill anyone, anywhere, with just a cold, calculated thought. With excited hands, Emma reached for the silver helmet that stood in front of her. "Miss Frost." Came a sudden interruption. Emma turned and found three girls standing behind her, their eyes glowing with white energy.

"…my girls…" she whispered, with a blind hope that made Emma look like a child desperately in search for a friend. "…You need to think about this. This isn't what you want." They all said, taking a step forward. "…Even you turn your backs on me…" Emma accused.

"Think Miss Frost…if you end the world, then who will be there to recognize your victory?"

"…this is not about victory… this is about making things right...I'm curing this world!"

"And here we thought you hated clichés. "

"Leave me." Emma narrowed her eyes, still ready, and very much willing to fight.

"We can't do that Miss Frost." The three girls suddenly disappeared, as Emma felt the catwalk she stood on shift and buckle. "We didn't learn all we know just from you, after all." They then said, as the Cerebra console turned into liquid metal, latching onto the diamond woman's body, and then turning into a high-speed rollercoaster that bound her mind in place. "Remember, we spent summer with Madame Lafarge."

**Headmaster's Office/-at the same time- **

"I can't do this." Mark muttered, stepping away from his best friend. "I can't."

"Yes you can." Derrick reassured, closing the gap between them.

"It's one thing to ask us to let you die, it's another to ask me to kill you."

"At this point, I'm not asking."

"…" Mark shook his head. "…it's okay. I…want it to be you."

"…what?"

"…" Derrick took one more step forward, and suddenly held Mark in a tight embrace. It was only after his initial surprise that Mark returned the favor, completing the circle that their friendship had given them. Derrick closed his eyes as he rested chin face against Mark's shoulder. He always smelled nice. _"…just tell him." _Don't. _"…tell him how much he means to you…" _He'll freak out. _"…it's the last chance you'll ever get!" _Don't make him feel worse than he already does. _"…you'll die and he'll never know…" _It's better this way. _"…just allow yourself this one thing…" _It's selfish. _"Just three little words…" _He won't understand. "…Mark?" Derrick lifted his chin just an inch from his best friend's shoulder.

"…Yeah?" It was the first time Derrick heard Mark's voice turn so soft.

"…I think Mindee likes you." He whispered. Before Mark could even react, Derrick used the last ounce of his telepathic ability to strike his best friend with a powerful bolt of energy. "Derrick?" Mark's eyes lit up as he realized that his best friend telepathically forced him to use his power. "…it's my choice." He said again, as he found himself engulfed by a massive, column of white light.

"Derrick!"

**Cerebra/18:19 **

As Emma thought her way out of each obstacle that the girls threw at her, she readied to strike back. A single bolt of psychic energy would have been enough to expel their astral projections from the chamber, and it was exactly what she planned to do. Without effort, she took down a massive brick wall that the girls conjured, finally tearing away from the illusions that they cast into her mind. And with a thought, she struck back, tearing the three apparitions from the chamber like they were paper, ridding her, at least for the moment, of her would-be stoppers.

"…Cerebra…" Emma quickly reached for the helmet, and put it on. In an instant, the walls around her gave way to endless horizons of pink mixed with dark blue. "…so much sickness…"she muttered, channeling her energy into the select minds that she needed.

"So much…ahhh!" Without warning, she felt something move through her, siphoning out all the negative energy that the Black Queen used to corrupt her.

_"Now!" _an image of the Stepford Cuckoos once again appeared right inside Emma's head, and fired a massive psychic bolt that was so powerful it managed to send her flying backwards. '

"Emma!" Scott stormed into the room, his finger by the edge of his visor, only to stop as he saw the woman on the floor.

"Scott?"

"…"

"Oh my God."

**Headmaster's Office/-at the same time- **

Mark staggered back, his eyes wide and his mouth hung open. His best friend was laid on the floor, no longer moving. In the corner, the Cuckoos held their heads, finally back to themselves. Mindee covered her mouth as she saw the body of their friend. "…" Mark began to shamble to the corner of the room, and then dropped on all fours as he began to heave. Once more, Mindee began to cry.

"…where did he go?" Celeste asked weakly, her eyes on Derrick's motionless body. Mark shook his head as he wiped the remnants of what was in his stomach from his mouth. "…I don't know." With the shock of loss still heavy in his system, Mark wearily crawled to the wall where he rested his back.

"…" Leaving her weeping sister's side, Phoebe slowly made her way to the body, and knelt beside it. "…" With a heavy heart, she turned to her sisters, and asked the question that any of them did not wish to dwell on. "…did we win?"

"…" Mark shook his head once more. "I don't know."

**University Week/3 days later**

The auditorium was filled to the brim with students, each one coping in one way or another with the loss of a friend. Both Phoebe and Celeste, as always, were on the very front row, though for the first time in a long time, Mindee was not sitting beside them. The senior faculty, as always, sat on stage, on small, wooden chairs four feet behind the podium where Emma stood. "Good morning, students." She started, catching the student body's attention. "I'm sure…well, I've seen, how badly the loss of one of us has affected everyone. It is tragic to lose someone so…full of potential. But…we can all forget. We have the ability to. Not forget as in 'put the past behind'. No. I mean literally. With just a thought, I can make the pain go away. I can make the feeling of hurt and of loss disappear." Emma snapped her fingers. "Just like that." Some of the students were already shifting uncomfortably in their seats. "Derrick Gallis is gone. He has touched your…our… lives, with his infectious smile and his… capacity to spot every silver lining there is in this world. And if you can't bear with the fact that he is gone…then you can see me after the day's activities, and I can make you forget that he even existed."

Scott watched Emma as she spoke. Her words when she was under Selene's control still haunted him. She told him that he was under someone else's control, and he found that more than unsettling. But more than that, he was thinking about right and wrong. About how it was so quick for him to decide to fire at the woman he loved. About the night she spent crying in his arms as the memories of what she did, and what she attempted to do, flooded back in. "…"

_"Yes…I can make you forget every laugh you spent with him, every drink, and every late-night get together at the pizzeria in town. I'll be glad to help you. And as an added bonus, I'll also take a 9-iron, and crack it over your skull. And when you lay on the floor, bleeding your bloody brains out, I'll force you to believe that you are a form of paramecium with dreams of one day evolving into something that has the ability to actually reproduce sexually."_

Henry kept his head low, his ears hanging down like a domesticated animal knowing that it had done something wrong. He was one of the world's most brilliant creatures. That was why he felt so pathetic, being mentally reduced to nothing more than a filthy animal. It was bad enough he looked like one, but to act like on, to be directed by a single-minded need to obey one's instincts; it made him want to vomit.

_"…In his last moment on this Earth, Derrick Gallis transformed into an unwilling weapon. One that drove me, and two other senior members of this institution ,temporarily insane. He was the product of hate. Of malicious depravity. His only purpose in life was that he was supposed to usher in the extinction of the X-Man. All his young life he was raised to be nothing more but a tool for destruction. But he chose to spend the last few seconds on this Earth in spite of all that."_

Kitty took a second to turn and look at Peter, who was sitting one seat away from her. He was looking in the crowd, surveying the reactions of the students to Emma's ongoing speech. "…" She wondered about what it was her teammate was thinking. It was no secret that she's been making moves to show him that she was interested. No, more than interested. She was in love. And as her mind once more began to ramble about why he hasn't reciprocated, she stopped. Peter turned and faced her too. "…" Then Peter smiled.

_"There are still a lot of you who blame your…state of being on parents…on God. Some of you are still resentful of being born with a stamp on your foreheads telling the baseline humans to hate you on sight. Well boo-bloody-hoo. If you think that fate dealt you an unlucky car, think of Derrick Gallis. If you think that being a mutant defines who you are, then think of Derrick Gallis. If you think that being born into a world full of anger and strife means you can't do anything in your power to change…then think about Derrick Gallis."_

Logan leaned back on the chair, his hands crossed over his chest, as he recalled the night when Emma force fed him the image of the first woman he ever loved, dying in his arms. He wondered if that was the reason that he was so insensitive to death. "…" He needed to get over her.

_"We live in difficult times. We know that. But as we have pointed out time and again, it is not the circumstance you're in that makes you who you are. What makes you special… what makes you worth saving, are the choices that you make in those circumstances. It could be deciding whether or not to copy off of your seatmate's midterm, or it could be in a fight to the death with another clone of Magneto. Derrick made a choice. Either he would allow himself to be the weapon that his mother wanted him to be…or if he would spit it back in her face for the sake of humanity." _

Bile held his hand along the narrow alley's wall as he stumbled into the shadows. "Next time…next time…" he repeated to himself as he attempted to push aside the pain that wrecked his entire body. "I'm going to murder you all…!" Bile gritted his teeth as he fell to his knees, using the wall to sit back on. And as he thought back on the past few days, how he hoped to be remembered, even at least in death, a wicked smile began to crack through his pained exterior. With the blood of the innocent still fresh in his mind, the old man began to laugh. Louder and louder, he laughed.

_"Derrick died because he believed that life isn't worth living if someone else is driving at the wheel. That's why. That's why if anyone of you so much as forgets what it was his last act stood for, what his last testament to all of you was…then believe me when I tell you, that I will make you remember. He was one of us. And we will never forget him." _

Mark watched the brown leaves begin to whittle and fall as he leaned beneath a massive oak tree. A soft gust of wind blew at his face, caressing his cheek much like a gentle lover would at night. And as he closed his eyes to relish the peace that nature brought him, he squeezed his hand, feeling the soft skin of the girl beside him. "…" Mindee sighed in comfort as she leaned her head on Mark's shoulder. "We should do this often." She whispered, as the both of them watched the trees in the vast expanse of forest before them, sway and dance under the sun's warm smile.

**The End. **

**Author's Note: Again, a heartfelt thanks to all of you. I really enjoyed writing this piece, and I'm glad that there are those of who you enjoyed reading it. Until next time. Animo. **


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